


Date A Live: Altered Timeline

by Tohka_Yatogami



Category: Date A Live
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Cross-Posted on FanFiction.Net, F/M, Mio is the Big Good, Shido is Shinji
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-10
Updated: 2020-10-29
Packaged: 2021-03-09 03:27:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 39,707
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27267973
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tohka_Yatogami/pseuds/Tohka_Yatogami
Summary: (Co-Written with kingpariah) Just as a similar story is able to take its own path, a different story can follow an almost identical path. How will the original events of Date A Live go when the smallest of changes tells a different, yet nearly unchanged story? (Rewrite of Date A Re:Live)[Cross-posted on fanfiction.net]
Relationships: Takamiya Mio/Takamiya Shinji
Comments: 6
Kudos: 8





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am not very good at using the tag system on here just yet, so if you see a tag that needs to be added? Please let me know so I can add it in.

**Hey there everyone! Tohka Yatogami here, and happy to say that after a long wait... the rewrite/reboot of Date A Re:Live has finally arrived!**

**For those who want to see the original, you can find it on Archive of Our Own, under the same pen name I have here. Also, if you're worried that reading the original will spoil everything in this version? Then don't. By this chapter's end, you'll see why it won't matter ;)**

**Joining me in this making this rewrite is my good friend and fellow author, kingpariah. He's the genius behind Date A New Live, which I highly recommend reading if you haven't already, and that's not just because I help him make it as a co-writer like he's now doing with me for this story. Oh! And speaking of which, with his permission, there are a few shared ideas that will appear in this story, but it won't be enough to spoil either story since there's a lot of things that are exclusive to each.**

**This rewrite will be including things from all 22 novels, and the primary reason it's finally happening is because the main story has finally come to an end with V22's release. Also, there will be some fixes from the few weaker areas in the original story.**

**One in particular being how my nerfing of DEM may have come a bit _too_ strong when you consider how few victories they actually had. This time, the DEM will have a more equal ground to the strengthened Ratatoskr, and I've thought of a good reason to justify their balance in powers to make sure of it.**

**Also, in case anyone asks about if I'll be adapting anything from Date A Bullet into the story, and how if I say yes? The best and most honest answer that I can give is that there's not really anything planned there. Part of this comes from a combination of a future revelation and that one theory about Kurumi and DAB that surfaced from some of the reveals in the final volume, so I couldn't really fit it in. That, and DAB didn't have much presence in the original, so...**

**Now, let's not keep this story waiting and get the show on the road!**

* * *

**[Chapter 1 - Restart: April 10th]**

Dark energy with a purple tone and an occasional white glow inside was seen exploding as it followed a silhouette flying through the night of a nearly full moon, cloaked only by the occasional debris of a destroyed building or smaller structure in a ruined city.

As the silhouette flew, dark streams that were almost a complete black in color quickly darted after it, smashing through everything in their path without care or remorse.

Sensing the incoming attacks aimed their way, the silhouette turned around and swung their hand to unleash more of the dark energy in the form of a large wave. The attack only hit one of the streams that chased after them, and only managed to hamper it momentarily as its form spread and began to reform, which it followed by retaliating with a barrage of dark spheres that were lacking a glow.

The silhouette let out a near silent gasp as they began dodging the spheres. Multiple explosions went off until the chain reaction caused a building to collapse, making the silhouette realize too late they were in its path as it crashed down on them. They were sent tumbling onto the ground, then slowly got to their feet as the streams landed.

"Damn you, you bastards..." The silhouette grunted, revealing it had a deep and feminine voice.

It was then that the stream she had hit finished reforming, causing it and the others to start walking closer, which revealed their forms were some kind of humanoid shapes made of energy. The one she hit soon revealing a brief glow on its so-called face that acted like the kind of expression you would see from a monster in a horror film.

"You just keep trying to kill and kill and kill me whenever you find me... you deserve to die and die and die!" The girl said quietly, until it became loud and clear as a strong rage could be seen in what appeared to be her _white_ pupils.

Energy burst from off her body, catching the unknown creatures off-guard as they sensed her power spiking to dangerous levels.

**"Adonai Melek!"**

Her form began glowing as some kind of outfit formed around her body, with the only clear detail in the cover of night being what looked to be glowing cloth made of energy, or even some form of solidified light. The shape of it did seem to resemble a dress equipped with armor.

Raising her foot, she then stomped the ground, causing a dark cyclone to form as some kind of throne made of otherworldly stone rose from its center.

The cyclone left as quickly as it came, and the girl jumped towards it before reaching at its top, revealing it to be a scabbard as she drew what was revealed as the handle of a sword which had its features hidden by the darkness of the night.

**"Sandalphon!"**

Raising the sword behind her head, it began to unleash a powerful glow before she finally swung it down.

A small twinkle could be seen before an explosion of darkness covered the area, swallowing everything inside.

* * *

**_~ Monday, April 10th: Tenguu City_ **

The gentle sounds of chirping birds filled the morning air, giving serenity to the residents of a Japanese city, who felt the rays of the sun slowly waking them. Nothing but the gentle quiet to nudge them from their dreams into the waking world.

**"WAKE UP!"**

That is... barring one exception, which came from a small two-story house, where an interesting situation was happening in the room belonging to one of its two residents.

"Mana, please stop. Just let me sleep!" A male voice groaned.

"Absolutely... not, Shinji! You told me to... wake you up early because... today's the start of... a new school year!" A female voice grunted.

Said situation was the younger sister among a pair of siblings was trying, and currently failing, to get her sleepy brother out of bed.

"Now, for the last time, wake up!" Mana screamed.

The brother of the two was revealed to be a 16-year old boy with short, straight blue hair and amber brown eyes. He was currently dressed in black pajamas, groaning as his little sister tried and failed to pull his heavy form out of bed.

As for his little sister, she had the same colored hair and eyes, with her hair normally reaching to her bust, which was shown to be quite gifted for someone her age, though it currently only reached to her shoulders due to it being tied in a ponytail, with some of her bangs left out. There was also the black dot of a birthmark under her left eye, often mistaken as a mole or etc., due to its shape and look.

"Fine! If you're gonna be lazy, then you leave me no choice!" Mana declared, ceasing her attempts to pull on him.

Shinji relaxed a little... until he heard a snapping sound.

His eyes shot open as he saw his sister smacking the shinai she used for kendo practice, and had left by the door just for a situation like this, into her hand before she moved it into a swinging position.

"Wait, Mana! I'm awake-" Shinji questioned, feeling himself start to sweat.

**"Stomach!"**

His eyes went white as the wooden sword struck him in the stomach, making him give out a silent scream as the pain fully woke him.

"So, are you awake now?" Mana asked with a light smirk.

"It did. Just... give me a minute for my body to do the same." Shinji said in a slight mumble, breathing heavily from what he just experienced.

Mana's smirk became a normal smile as she hopped off the bed.

"Be down in five minutes. Otherwise I'll come back up, and this time... I'll use my shinai on your _head_." Mana warned.

Shinji felt his body twitch as he immediately rolled out of bed, making Mana smile as she left his room.

* * *

Around a quarter of an hour later, both Shinji and Mana had taken a shower and gotten dressed in their school uniforms, then met each other downstairs.

For Shinji, his uniform was a blazer-type that consisted of a white long-sleeved shirt, a black blazer with his school emblem on the left, grey trousers, a blue tie with black and gray stripes, and white shoes he'd be picking up from his locker.

Mana's uniform was a sailor fuku that consisted of a white long-sleeved shirt, with a collar that had blue plaid on the rims and wrist cuffs, with a matching skirt, a short black tie, and white stockings that reached slightly lower than thigh-high in length.

"Good, you didn't go back to sleep." Mana smiled.

"How could I when you gave me the threat of your shinai hitting me on the head? That thing hurts like hell!" Shinji replied.

Mana let out a slight snicker.

The moment it ended, the two walked up to a shrine, where they briefly gained a sad look in their eyes before they sat on their knees, making a prayer motion to what was a picture of two people.

One was a woman that had long blue hair and green eyes and wore the white coat of a professor, while the other was a man with brunette hair and brown eyes that wore the white coat of a doctor.

It was their parents, who had both died when Shinji and Mana were too young to remember them.

At least, that's what the supposed story was, as the nature of their deaths had been a mystery to themselves and the criminal justice system, who eventually had to give up on finding any answers.

"Be at peace, mom and dad. Wherever you are." They said in unison.

After they finished their prayers for the day, Mana sniffled for a moment, prompting Shinji to lay a hand on her shoulder as the grief spilled out through her tears. Once she let out all her tears, she took a deep breath and looked at her brother.

"You OK?" He asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Some of my grief just slipped out." She replied, wiping her tears away.

They both stood up, with Shinji walking to the kitchen and Mana sitting on the couch.

"Any requests for breakfast?" Shinji inquired.

"Hmm... how about eggs, bacon, and a small salad with cherry tomatoes?" Mana requested, turning on the TV.

"Sure thing." Shinji confirmed.

Once the TV was on, Mana put on the News channel, where a reporter was talking about a recent disaster in a nearby city that was shown to already be halfway repaired.

"A Spacequake was recorded last night in Kirin City, leaving the city in ruins. However, despite the sudden timing of the quake's arrival, the citizens managed to evacuate fast enough to have avoided any casualties. As usual, all current investigations to determine the cause behind them and their unexpected return have failed." The reporter stated, looking at his script.

"Really? All of Kirin City was totaled?" Shinji remarked, briefly turning to look at the report.

"It was." Mana confirmed, not turning her head.

Shinji let out a sigh as he pulled the two strips of bacon from the frying pan, replacing them two eggs that he began to scramble.

"There have been a lot more as of lately..." He mentioned.

"Yeah, and it's gotten scary..." Mana agreed, curling up slightly.

Splitting up the finished eggs and moving each half onto a plate, he placed some salad leaves into a strainer and turned the water on as he began cutting up some cherry tomatoes.

"I'm scared. We barely manage today with the shelters and the repairs made by Realizer technology, so if they managed to get even worse..." She admitted, starting to shake a little.

Pausing what he was doing, Shinji walked over to his little sister and hugged her from behind.

"We might not know what will happen, but... just like when we moved in here after Haruko allowed us to start living by ourselves, you and I will get through it together." He reassured her.

"But how can we-" Mana questioned.

"Maybe we can do something about the Spacequakes, and maybe we can't. Though no matter what happens next? You and I won't just sit and let the world decide our fates." Shinji promised.

Hearing that, Mana let out a deep breath before smiling, putting her hand on his right arm.

"Thanks Shinji, I needed that." She replied.

"Your welcome. Now, why don't you sit down at the table? I'm almost finished making breakfast." Shinji suggested.

"OK." Mana agreed.

She turned off the TV and sat down at the table, with Shinji joining her shortly after as he brought the plates over.

As both began eating, Shinji looked at his sister.

"So, do you have any set plans for lunch after school?" He asked.

"I do. Kotori invited me and the others to eat at Danny's, so if you need to find me right after school is out, I'll be over there." Mana answered.

"Let me guess, she wants the deluxe kid's plate?" Shinji joked.

"Most likely." Mana smiled, followed by a slight giggle.

Both of them quickly finished their breakfast, right as the toaster finished cooking two pieces of toast for them.

"Well, we better start heading off now." Mana remarked, grabbing her shinai bag and school bag.

"Catch!" Shinji shouted.

She saw toast with grape jelly fly her way, and caught it with her mouth before quickly devouring it within seconds.

"See you later!" Mana exclaimed.

Mana opened the door and left, with Shinji quickly following with his own school bag after he ate his toast with strawberry jelly.

* * *

After a long walk, Mana stopped by a crosswalk area, leaning against a wall as she took out her phone.

"I made it to the crosswalk. All of you text me once you see me." Mana said, speaking her text out loud.

"Mana!"

Right as she sent it, Mana turned around and saw one of its recipients running towards her.

She was a girl with hair and eyes that were the same red as fresh strawberries, tied up in twin tails with black ribbons that had white tips and gold flowers designs, with the rest flowing behind her like a waterfall. Also, like Mana, she had a gifted figure for her age.

"Kotori!" Mana smiled.

Mana opened her arms as Kotori ran up and hugged her, making both smile, which they released a few seconds later.

"I just sent everyone a text asking them to text me once they were nearby. I never expected you'd be running into view right after I sent it." Mana stated, finding the irony as playfully funny.

"Guess I was too excited and hurried over the moment I was ready." Kotori answered.

Mana smirked slightly after hearing that, looking at her chest.

"H-Hey! What are you assuming there!?" Kotori questioned, her face turning red in embarrassment.

"Oh, nothing at all. I just felt like giving you a little tease." Mana admitted.

Kotori puffed her cheeks in response.

However, before she could say anything in response, Mana's phone let out a pair of text alerts.

"Wait, did you just get-" Kotori realized.

"If it was two alerts, then it can only be them." Mana replied.

Turning to the side, two of their remaining trio of friends walked into view, one of which was somewhat hiding behind the other. Like them, they were also girls who had gifted figures for their age.

For the girl in front, she had long, curly blue hair that was a lighter shade of blue than Mana or Shinji's blue hair was, and matching eyes. She also wore one of many optional additions to their school uniform in the form of a white beret with a blue plaid ribbon tied around its rim.

For the girl behind her, she had long, messy green hair tied in a side plait over her right shoulder with a black hair band, and matching eyes. She too wore an optional addition to her school uniform in the form of a black buttoned-up cardigan sweater that hid her hands and figure from view.

"Hey there Yoshino, Natsumi!" Mana greeted, waving at the duo.

"Good morning, Mana." The blue-haired girl replied with a smile.

The green-haired girl, now revealed to be Natsumi, didn't say anything and just continued hiding behind Yoshino.

"Probably just fake happiness to hide that something bad is happening today..." She mumbled in a negative tone.

Yoshino turned around and pet her head.

"Don't talk like that, today will be a great day." She reassured her.

Natsumi said nothing as her cheeks became noticeable little rosy.

"Now the only one left is-" Mana stated.

Right on cue, she got her final text alert, right as their final friend began walking into the area. If the text itself hadn't been proof enough, then the sudden sight of their male classmates stopping as they began blushing and making nervous sounds did.

The sight in question was of a girl with long blonde hair that reached to her waist and was partially tied in an odango style, held by black ribbons, with matching eyes.

Unlike the rest of her friends, her figure, while gifted, looked to be something that belonged to a high school student. The only thing that confirmed her status as a student in junior high was that she was around the same height as most of her fellow classmates.

"Hey Mukuro, we're over here!" Mana called out.

The blonde-haired beauty stopped for a moment, turning to see them, and smiling once she did before walking over to them.

"Hello everyone. Are you all excited for the new school year?" Mukuro greeted as she bowed slightly.

"I'm not." Natsumi replied without any hesitation.

Everyone gave an awkward laugh as they heard that, knowing that was going to be her reaction.

"Come on, let's see if that request I made for us to share a class went through." Mana suggested.

"Ooh! Please, let that be true!" Kotori begged.

And with those words, the group of five friends began continuing towards the school building.

* * *

In another part of the city, a loud scream of excitement was heard as a busty girl with long orange hair tied in a braid skated the streets on her roller blades, scaring a few people as she raced by.

"Sorry! Coming through!" She apologized through a series of shouts.

Following her at a slower pace was a girl who looked just like her, albeit her eyes were half-lidded as if she was always tired, revealing the former girl was one of two twins.

Both twins wore the Raizen High uniform for girls, which consisted of a white long sleeved shirt, a black blazer with the school emblem on the left side, a blue skirt with two black stripes near the bottom, thigh-high stockings that were black to contrast with the white stockings of Keisei Junior High, and a red ribbon in place of the male uniforms' ties.

However, each twin had a slight difference on their respective uniforms. The energetic twin had a red skirt instead of a blue one, whereas her tired twin had a blue ribbon in place of the usual red one. This seemed to only be for telling them apart more than anything.

"Come on Yuzuru, I'm gonna leave you behind!" The energetic twin warned.

"Kaguya, in front of you." The tired-looking twin warned.

Kaguya blinked, turning around right as she was about to crash into a couch being carried by two people. Her eyes briefly went white, right as she shifted her feet up, and managed to jump over the sofa.

The two people carrying it stopped to look at her in shock, right as Kaguya looked around to look at her sister.

"Ha! Ha! As if that would be enough to stop me in my tracks-" She laughed.

At that moment, due to not seeing where her backside was heading, Kaguya ended up crashing into a nearby light post, making her eyes widen before she whimpered and slid down until her butt hit the ground.

Yuzuru caught up to her a minute later, sighing as she shook her head in embarrassment.

"That was your fault, and only your fault." Yuzuru stated.

"Yeah... gotcha..." Kaguya mumbled, pushing herself up using her twin's bike.

"Get on." Yuzuru sighed.

Kaguya shakily sat on the bike, holding onto her sister's waist as she biked them the rest of the way.

* * *

At a particularly expensive looking pair of buildings, a different high school was seen, one that separated its genders between the two buildings. On the building to the right, where the girls attended, many girls looked at the gate in admiration of the student who walked into view.

Wearing the female uniform of Rindouji High on her voluptuous form, which was a sailor fuku of a deep blue color with some white, stood a girl with long, light indigo hair in a hime cut and matching eyes. There was also a hair clip resembling a yellow flower in her hair.

"M-Miss Miku!?"

The girl known as Miku turned around, looking as a student she didn't recognize, who was likely one of the students who had just joined the school as a First Year, as she held out an autograph board. The poor thing was shaking like a chihuahua from standing before her idol, and the request she was about to make.

"Can I... have your autograph?" She asked quietly.

"Why of course you can." Miku smiled.

Grabbing a marker from her school bag, she took the autograph board and wrote her name down, then kissed the one corner to leave a small kiss mark on it.

The girl smiled as she saw it and bowed a few times.

"Thank you! Thank you so much!" She exclaimed.

Miku smiled as she saw the student run off, hugging the autograph close like a teddy bear, right before she heard a unique laugh behind her.

"Still as popular as ever, I see."

"Hello to you too Kurumi." Miku greeted, giggling as she turned around.

Behind her was a similarly voluptuous girl with red eyes and black hair in low twin tails, with the one on the left being longer to give her a small, but noticeable form of asymmetry that made her look particularly sexy. The fact her left eye was covered as a result of this, and her uniform's ribbon also followed this asymmetrical theme, had further enhanced its allure.

"Wow, that's all your response to me is?" Kurumi inquired.

"Like you wouldn't add a kiss to an autograph if it had been you doing it?" Miku answered with her own question, putting a hand near her mouth to emphasize the teasing.

"True." Kurumi admitted.

A loud scream was soon heard by most of the nearby students, getting the pair's attention as they recognized it.

"She was up late again, wasn't she?" Kurumi sighed.

"Probably." Miku nodded.

Right on cue, the sight of a tall girl with a more average figure and long gray hair, which was messy yet still cute, was seen rushing towards the gate. She held her school bag with both hands as the light of the sun reflected off her square-framed glasses.

Just as she got past the school gate...

*"THUD!"*

The nearby students winced as she fell over, and screamed as she made contact with the ground. Just as she lifted up her head, her school bag went flying, and then landed on her head.

*"WHACK!"*

*"SHATTER!"*

Everyone winced a second time, but when the girl lifted her head this time, her glasses were shown to now have broken lenses. Shortly after, the frames themselves broke in half as if to mock her even further.

As her now to revealed to be light blue eyes saw their remains through her blurry vision, the girl let out a sigh.

"Not again..." She complained, reaching into her pocket.

She quickly pulled out a spare pair, putting them on and then adjusting them to her face. It around this time that Miku and Kurumi both offered her a hand.

"Nia, you really need to take better care of yourself." Kurumi stated.

"You wouldn't want your beautiful face getting ruined from this and constantly overworking yourself." Miku remarked.

Nia took their hands and got on her feet, soon grabbing her school bag.

"It isn't my fault that my publisher occasionally forgets I'm still in high school for some of my deadlines." She replied with a sigh.

Kurumi and Miku both let out forced laughs in response.

"Let's just get to class now, shall we?" Miku suggested, trying to change the topic.

"That sounds like a good plan." Kurumi agreed.

* * *

Shinji soon arrived at Raizen High, and once he did, a trio of girls quickly noticed him.

The first girl in the trio had blonde hair tied in a small ponytail, hazel eyes, and had an above modest figure. The second girl had short brunette hair with a tint of red in it, brown eyes, and had a below modest figure. The last girl had long black hair with a blue tint and dark blue eyes, wearing a pair of circular-framed glasses.

"Hey, is that boy who I think he is?" The blonde, Ai inquired.

"Depends, who do you think he is?" The brunette, Mai asked.

"Of course that's who you think it is, he's clearly Shinji Takamiya." The glasses girl, Mii answered.

Mai blinked a few times.

"I'm sorry, but who? Also, why is he important?" She asked.

Mii and Ai gasped in response.

"How do you not recognize his last name!?" Ai questioned.

"Should I?" Mai asked.

"Yes, because Takamiya is the last name of the couple who created the Realizers!" Mii explained.

As that talk happened, someone appeared behind Shinji.

"Hey there Shinji."

Hearing his name and recognizing that voice, Shinji turned around to see a boy with spiky black hair that was slicked back, and matching eyes on his face, which was that of an obvious playboy.

"Uh... it's been a while, hasn't it, Hiroto..." He replied, looking somewhat uncomfortable.

Said trio was broken out of their discussion as they noticed Hiroto standing next to Shinji.

"That's gonna get old... and creepy." Mai stated.

"Very fast." Mii agreed, nodding her head.

Ai noticed someone with white hair walking by, not recognizing the particular student.

"Is something wrong Ai?" Mii asked.

"No, I'm fine. Though we should probably get to class before we miss the orientation assembly." She replied.

It wasn't long before they went inside, with Shinji managing to excuse himself from Hiroto to do the same.

The current Student Council president gave a speech to the First-Year students who were new, the Second-Year students that had to focus on what they wanted to do, and the Third-Year Students who would soon be graduating.

"Now, with all of that said, please head to your class for today's orientation. You'll be allowed home at lunch, and get a break at the halfway point between now and then." The Council President announced.

With that, everyone stood up and learned where their classes were, with Shinji finding himself as part of Class 2-D... with Hiroto as one of his classmates.

"Aw man..." He whispered to himself, putting a hand on his forehead.

He soon walked into his classroom and found his seat, which was the second leftmost seat in the last row. Soon after, Hiroto walked up to him.

"Well, well. How lucky you are to end up in the same class as me again? Some people would call this fate, and I would be one of those people." He remarked, unaware of how he was bothering Shinji.

"Of course you would..." Shinji sighed, lowering his head slightly.

At that moment, the bell rang, signaling everyone to get in their seats. Hiroto's ended up being the one in front of his, which was the one upside for Shinji about them sharing a classroom again.

'Last year he was sitting next to me, so this is way better.' He thought.

Their teacher walked into the room, making most of the students cheer as they saw her. She was a young-looking woman with a small body build and thin-rimmed glasses, wearing a pink dress with a yellow skirt.

"Oh, heck yeah! It's Tamae!" Hiroto cheered.

She cleared her throat, getting everyone's attention as a second woman and their deputy teacher entered the room.

The deputy teacher was a young-looking woman with light Nordic blonde hair, purple eyes, pale skin, and a slender body.

"Hello everyone. I'm Ms. Okamine, and I'll be your teacher this year." She greeted.

"And I'll be her assistant, Ellen Mira Mathers, while also acting as your Physics teacher. I'd like all of you to know I'm here to help you with anything." The deputy teacher greeted.

Her eyes then glared at a certain trio of girls.

"That is... except you three over there, who I remember from last year." Ellen warned, a glare shadow soon forming on her face.

Ai, Mai, and Mii all gave nervous laughs.

"She won't be letting that go, will she?" Ai realized, sweating a little.

"Nope." Mai and Mii both said.

Tamae had no idea what that was about, so she just let out a slight laugh.

"Well, with that out of the way... let's get-" She suggested.

A text alert rang from her phone at that minute, making her read it as she got a notice from the school's headmaster.

"Oh! It's only the first day, yet we've already gained a new transfer student for our class." Tamae revealed with a smile.

Everyone heard a knock at the door.

"Go ahead, come on in!" She answered.

The door opened, and everyone looked as a girl with long hair as white as the snow came into view, having a figure that easily put Ai's to shame. Turning to face the class, eyes as blue as the sky met their gaze along with her beautiful smile.

"Hello there, it's nice to meet all of you. My name is Origami Tobiichi." She greeted, with a voice that drew in the boys like flies to honey.

Hiroto's cheeks turned red almost instantly.

"Look at that dazzling long white hair, and that pure innocent smile! She's cute enough to give my honey a run for my money!" He said, holding up his phone to show a girl from a dating sim.

'Right, his virtual girlfriend...' Shinji thought.

"The seats on either side of Shinji are open, so feel free to choose either of them." Tamae stated.

"Sure, thanks." Origami replied.

She walked over towards Shinji, but once she was close enough? She let out a slight gasp.

"Your face..." She breathed.

Shinji heard that and looked at her, noticing she was staring at him.

"Do I know you?" Origami asked herself.

Hearing that made Shinji's eyes widen, but not because he recognized her.

It was the fact he seemed familiar to her that caught his attention.

* * *

The scene shifted over to Keisei Junior High, right as each school's break period arrived for their first days.

Her class was currently watching the sight of Mana and Kotori holding each other's hands and cheering, as like they had hoped, the two of them, Yoshino, Natsumi, and Mukuro had all ended up in the same class.

"The Goddess of Luck has truly smiled upon on this year!" Kotori praised.

"I told you it would happen, and I'm so glad you believed." Mana agreed.

Natsumi looked to the side.

"Which means something bad is going to happen so things are balanced out." She remarked, laying against the desk.

Mana sighed and was about to retort, only for her phone to start ringing, making her pull it out to see Shinji calling.

"Knew it." Natsumi sighed.

"Cut it out Natsumi, my brother and I promised we'd call each other once the first break came." Mana replied.

She walked into the hall and answered the call.

"Hey big bro, what's up?" She answered cheerfully.

"Mana... we may finally have a lead!" He answered.

Those words made her eyes widen as her smile went flat, knowing exactly what that meant.

"What's the lead?" She asked, holding the phone closer with both of her hands.

"A girl just transferred into my class. When she got close to me, she asked herself if she knew me. I don't know how, but... that has to mean she recognizes me." Shinji revealed.

"Which means she might be aware of what happened to our parents." Mana realized.

"Exactly, so I left her a note, asking her to meet me on the rooftop. If I'm right, then I'll call you again around lunch time and tell you what I've learned." Shinji confirmed, sharing his plan.

"OK, I wish you good luck and hope that this lead turns out to be the real deal." She replied.

"Me too." Shinji hoped.

He hung up the phone, with the scene switching over to Raizen High's rooftop as he stood on it, waiting for his guest to arrive.

It didn't take long for Origami to open the door and make her appearance.

"Um... this was for me, right? Did you want to talk about something?" She asked, holding out a note that had Shinji asking her to meet on the roof.

"Yeah, sorry to bother you Origami, and thank you." Shinji confirmed.

She was a bit surprised by that, making Shinji look a bit confused by her reaction.

"Oh! Sorry, even though I used to live here, I'm still not used to how the people here are more comfortable with using first names." Origami apologized.

"Ah, gotcha." Shinji realized.

"You're... Shinji Takamiya, right?" She asked.

"Yeah." He nodded.

"So, what did you want to talk about?" Origami inquired.

"It's more of me being curious about something. Back when you sat down in class... you mentioned that you might recognize me?" Shinji asked.

"Oh, sorry about that! It's just that when I saw your face, it reminded me of someone I met a long time ago. " She apologized, explaining herself.

"Then you're saying that we might have-" Shinji asked.

"No, we couldn't have been friends or been familiar with each other. The person I'm talking about was someone that I saw just the one time around 5 years ago. In fact, he's probably never even seen me before." Origami apologized, waving her hands out.

Upon hearing the first part of his reply, he was about to lose heart... until she said this meeting was 5 years ago, which caused a silent gasp to escape his throat.

"So, now that I've answered that question, it is alright for me to go back to class-" She asked.

Shinji suddenly grabbed her shoulders.

"You said this was 5 years ago, right? Was this during the Nankou Fire!?" Shinji asked, his face shaking as he tried to keep calm.

Origami let out a gasp as she heard that.

"How did you know that?" She questioned.

Another gasp escaped Origami's mouth, followed by her putting her right hand near her mouth.

"Wait... by any chance, did you push a man and woman away from a piece of flaming debris?" She inquired.

"That's exactly what I did." Shinji confirmed.

It took a few seconds, but he realized who that man and woman must have been.

"Hold on, where those your-" He realized.

Origami's voice shook for a moment before tears filled her eyes, realizing the same thing that he did.

"You... you were that boy who saved my parents." She confirmed as a single tear escaped each of her eyes.

She grabbed his hands.

"Thank you, thank you so much! I owe you everything! If you hadn't been there, my parents would have died for sure!" Origami sniffled, showing her gratitude.

"I'm glad to hear that. My mom and dad passed away when my sister and I were both really young, so it makes me happy to hear yours are still OK." He smiled.

Origami soon lowered her head.

"Actually, my parents... are no longer with me either." She admitted.

Shinji's eyes widened as he heard that.

"There were caught in a car accident only a year after that fire. However, I don't want you to feel guilty about that. Because of you, I was able to treasure that year before they died. So, even those I'm sad that I lost them... I at least managed to fully cherish our remaining time together." Origami continued, her smile completely genuine.

"Glad to hear you found a bright side." Shinji replied, looking to his left.

Origami noticed this.

"Are you OK?" She asked, looking worried.

"No, when you mentioned you might know me, I was hoping that... you might be a lead to what killed my parents." Shinji admitted.

That left Origami confused, which he noticed by how she replied by blinking twice.

"Right, guess I should explain that. My parents... were the ones who created the Realizer technology." He explained, closing his eyes.

She let out a loud gasp, covering her mouth with both hands.

"No way, your parents were Professor Fumie Takamiya and Doctor Rintaro Takamiya!?" Origami asked in slight disbelief.

"Yeah." He nodded.

"Then maybe I can help you, somewhat." She revealed.

Shinji's eyes widened when he heard that, seeing Origami smile at him.

"While I don't know anything specific. My Aunt, who adopted me after my parents passed away, used to work for DEM Industries, and heard some rumors. They might not be true, but would you like to hear those rumors?" Origami asked.

"Yes, please. No matter how small the chance might be, if there's any truth to them... I need to know." He begged.

Taking a deep breath, Origami walked to the nearby guard rails, holding them as she looked towards the sky.

**[Date A Live - Mayuri Judgment: If We Meet Again]**

No words followed at first, confusing Shinji.

"Origami?" He asked in concern.

It was then that she turned around, and he found himself speechless as tears began to cascade down her cheeks. Whatever she was about to say was something he might not like hearing. Despite that... he had to know.

"Shinji, are you aware of what the Eurasian Sky Disaster was considered to be before scientists learned it was actually the Original Spacequake?" Origami inquired.

"I do." He confirmed.

"All people knew about it at the time was that it was some sort of accident. Somehow, we were able to cause an explosion which equaled that of the still hypothetical Nuclear Fusion Bomb and claimed the lives of 150 Million people, while also damaging 49 other locations across the world." She continued.

"Locations like the crater Tenguu City was made in." Shinji stated.

"That's right. When the Spacequakes returned 5 years ago, people were left terrified because what was thought to be a onetime thing became a natural disaster, and yet... it was those very facts that made my Aunt believe that this was no coincidence." Origami stated.

She gripped the railings tightly.

"For the Original Spacequake to be so destructive compared to every other we live through today on a constant basis? For the people who made the technology to help repair the damage faster than it can wipe out civilization and/or Humanity to soon die? For the people who made that technology to do so that quickly as if they knew..." She stated.

"Origami, what are you saying?" Shinji asked, though he had an idea.

Origami took a deep breath before turning around and looking at Shinji.

"The truth could very well be that the Eurasian Sky Disaster... was _not_ an accident. It was planned, and your parents were murdered because of it." She answered.

**[Insert Song End]**

"W-What?" Shinji replied, his voice shaking.

Because of the shock, he fell to his knees, and felt his throat tighten up as he briefly struggled to breathe for a few seconds. During this time, Origami chose not to say anything.

Once he finally managed to calm down slightly, Shinji looked at Origami again, with clear terror on his face.

"Origami, what do you mean?" He asked.

"Well, you know how I said my aunt was once part of DEM Industries?" She reminded him.

"Yeah." He confirmed.

**[Date A Live: Catastrophe]**

"The reason she isn't with them anymore has nothing to do with her being fired, or anything along the lines of being replaced because of circumstances that didn't favor her. She outright quit out of disgust from learning these rumors... among other things." Origami continued.

She closed her eyes.

"Asgard Electronics, their main rival, was once the same organization. Even down to some of the buildings they own, like the ones here in Japan, America, China... all because their founders were once among the founders of DEM, but left when their moralities became clear opposites of each other." She revealed.

"Are you serious?" Shinji questioned.

"Yes, because I'm telling you the honest truth, or at least the best I know of it." Origami verified.

She took a deep breath.

"Truth be told... I hate DEM Industries, and I don't know why. There's just this feeling in my heart that seems to scream at them with anger. Due to those feelings, I've had a strong belief these rumors must be true on some level, because a rumor is often tied to some kind of truth in some manner." She admitted.

Shinji sweated as he heard this.

"Then... do you have a theory about what happened to my parents?" Shinji inquired.

"Yes, and that theory is that DEM is linked to the Spacequakes in some way, and the reason your parents are dead? Because the DEM killed them, as their Realizer technology implies some of said founders refused to let them expose this to the world." Origami answered.

Shinji felt his throat go dry at that.

**[Insert Song End]**

After saying that, Origami blushed a bit as she held out her hands, waving them as she became a little nervous and a sweat drop trickled down her left cheek.

"But, don't take what I said too seriously! After all, I did say these were all rumors, and admitted I do have some bias coloring my perceptions." She mentioned.

That snapped Shinji out of it, making him blush.

"Oh yeah. Guess I was starting to believe everything you said was true." Shinji realized.

"My apologies for that. I guess that I was venting a bit, and got a little carried away." Origami apologized.

At that moment, they both heard the bell that signified the break was over.

"Has it really been that long!? We better get back to class!" Origami realized, walking to the door.

She briefly stopped to look at Shinji.

"I'm glad we got to talk like this, and that I was able to properly thank you for 5 years ago." She smiled.

"You're welcome." He smiled back.

"Well, I'll meet you back in-" Origami replied.

"Oh, wait! Just a moment!" Shinji shouted.

This caught her attention.

"By any chance, could I get your number?" He requested.

Origami gasped as her face went red, confusing Shinji.

"Are you... asking me on a date!?" She asked.

Suddenly, he went red as he realized the implications behind his question, and began swinging his hands out.

"N-No! I meant so that we can talk, outside of school! That's all!" He clarified.

"O-Oh! You meant that as new friends!" Origami realized.

In her mind, Origami's mental self was screaming and holding her head, completely embarrassed that she assumed that in the first place.

"I-I'll leave it on your desk, so... look at it later!" She promised, backing up towards the door.

She hit it, and nearly tripped over.

"S-See you back in class!" She said, louder than she intended to.

Watching the door close behind her, Shinji let out a deep breath.

'I know she said that was all just rumors she heard and theories she made, but... could the things she said really be true? Were our parents taken from us because they were murdered by a whole organization?' He thought, feeling the strangest feeling in his gut.

Shaking those thoughts off, he headed back to class.

* * *

Time flew by until it was time for Lunch, and by extension, the end of their first day of school. All that's left was for the bell to ring and make it official.

"I hope you all had a good first day!" Tamae smiled.

Ellen looked at her phone, seeing a silent message being sent to her.

"Excuse me, but I need to step out for a moment." Ellen apologized.

"Oh, no worries! It's about time for everyone to leave anyways. Feel free to leave early if you need to." Tamae reassured her.

"Thank you." Ellen smiled.

She walked out of the room, moving to a secluded spot in the hallway before answering her phone.

"What's the situation?" She answered.

Ellen nodded as the caller replied, making a serious expression form on her face.

"Understood, I'm on my way." Ellen replied.

As everyone packed up, Origami was seen putting her number in Shinji's phone, looking away from him and blushing once she was done.

"Here..." She said quietly.

"Thank you." Shinji replied.

As he got up and prepared to go home, he saw Hiroto walk up to him.

"Hey Shinji, wanna go home together?" He asked.

Origami heard that and felt her face go a little blue, especially when she realized how uncomfortable Shinji looked.

'Does he not realize the way he talks sounds like flirting?' She questioned.

"Sorry, but I've got plans to meet my sister for lunch." Shinji quickly lied.

"Of course it would be your sister. After all, there's not a girl in this school with a sensitive and kind enough spirit to have lunch with you." Hiroto replied.

The students in the class all froze at that.

'That was _not_ a compliment.' They all thought.

Just as Shinji was about to make a retort...

*"BLARE!"*

Everyone's eyes widened in fear as they heard that all too familiar alarm, and to quell any doubts to what it was after it went off?

**"WARNING! YOUR ATTENTION PLEASE, THIS IS NOT A DRILL! THERE HAVE BEEN PRECURSORY SIGNS OF AN IMPENDING SPACEQUAKE IN THE CITY! PLEASE EVACUATE TO YOUR NEAREST SHELTER! I REPEAT!"**

Shinji immediately called Mana, who picked up instantly.

"Big bro, are you OK!?" She asked.

"Yeah, are you and your friends evacuating? My class should start evacuating any moment now." He answered.

"Same with us. Stay safe." Mana replied, taking deep breathes to calm herself.

Shinji nodded before hanging up. As this was happening, Origami could be seen standing in place, with her eyes going into a trance-like state as she left the room without anyone noticing.

"Everyone! Make sure you don't forget your three D's! Don't push, don't run, and don't wait around as you head to the shelters!" Tamae announced.

The students began heading to the shelter, while everyone outside the did the same as various buildings and structures began using Realizer technology to shift their positions as they either protecting things like cars or transporting people into the other shelters in the city.

"Hey, has anyone see Kaguya or Yuzuru?"

"No, I haven't seen them since the alarm went off, but I'm sure they were in the classroom before it did!"

Hearing that caused Shinji's eyes to widen as he realized something.

'I don't see Origami here either. Where are-' Shinji thought, trying to hopefully spot her in the crowd of students.

Suddenly, he felt his mind blank as his eyes became half-lidded and his body gained a mind of its own, walking away.

"Oh boy, uh... there isn't anyone else missing, is there?" Tamae asked.

It was around then that Ai noticed Shinji's sudden absence, despite seeing him enter the shelter entrance moments ago.

"Ms. Okamine, now Shinji's missing too!" She warned.

"W-What!?" She panicked, feeling her heartbeat speed up.

* * *

Ellen walked into a mysterious location that was covered in mostly darkness, with only a few screens monitoring various things that only a seasoned scientist could truly understand lighting up the room.

"I'm here, what's the current status of everything?" Ellen inquired.

Among everyone present, only two silhouettes were shown to not be sitting among the various seats, with a female silhouette and a male silhouette in a different kind of chair standing in an area she too began standing at.

"Usual readings are proceeding as normal, and the Spacequake's location and timing have already been confirmed."

"Evacuation is going smoothly, and all current notices are showing a 98% chance of us having no casualties."

She let out a sigh of relief as she heard that.

"Wait, hold on... oh no!"

"What? What's wrong!?" The silhouetted woman asked, suddenly feeling nervous.

"Look at what the cameras just picked up!"

Bringing live footage into view, the sight of Shinji with his still half-lidded eyes, and Mana who had gained the same since his call to her, were both walking through the city.

"Shinji and Mana!?" The same woman gasped.

"What are they doing!?" Ellen questioned.

"I'm not sure, but it almost looks like their subconscious has taken complete control, and is guiding them somewhere."

"Where exactly?" The silhouetted man asked.

There was silence as everyone tried to get an exact location, only to gasp in horror once they found it.

"They're... heading to where the Spacequake is going to go off!"

Ellen and the two silhouetted figures all gasped once they heard this.

* * *

Near the area where the Spacequake would go off at any moment, the still semi-conscious Takamiya siblings were slowly closing in on each other, right as the sky began to warp and signal the incoming disaster.

A big swirl was seen like one might expect from a hurricane or tornado, but unlike them, the sky itself seemed to be stretching towards the ground with the intent to puncture it like a syringe through one's skin. Despite how slow it was moving, the pressure in the area could easily be felt.

"Must..." Shinji mumbled.

"Find her..." Mana mumbled.

They continued walking until finally, they bumped into one another, causing them to gasp as their eyes fully opened, now completely conscious of where they were and what they were doing.

"Huh? W-Where am I?" Mana panicked, looking around.

"Mana? Why are you here!?" Shinji questioned, seeing her.

He then blinked.

"Wait, why am _I_ here!?" He asked, starting to panic himself.

It was only then they noticed the Spacequake right next to them.

"Mana, get down!" He screamed.

He dashed forward and pushed her to the ground, shielding her as the Spacequake went off, causing what was shown to be a giant explosion of energy that looked black due to the various colors mixing together like common paints.

Despite being in its path... the energy that would have hit them suddenly moved away, completely avoiding them. As they were too busy closing their eyes over the possibility that they might die together, neither of them was aware of this.

"Are we dead yet?" Mana asked.

Shinji decided to open one of his eyes, and soon noticed they were still in Tenguu City, rather than a place one might describe as Heaven or Hell.

"No, we're... alive!" He answered.

Mana's eyes opened, and the two got up as they saw the nearby crater, which was fairly small from their perspective.

"Was that it?" She asked.

"I don't know. The damage always seems further than the Spacequake, but maybe... just maybe we were far enough away that we avoided a lethal zone, if we didn't avoid getting hit by it entirely." Shinji answered, unsure of what else to say.

Mana looked at the crater to get a better idea of what happened... and then gasped at what she saw, repeatedly tapping her brother's shoulder like she was doing a button mashing QTE in a video game.

"What?" He asked.

"Big brother... look over there!" Mana begged, pointing a shaky finger at the crater's center.

He blinked in confusion before doing just that. Once he did, his eyes widened as he saw what Mana had.

"What the hell?"

Sitting inside the crater, standing on a throne made of some kind of otherworldly stone with a handle on it, was a girl around Shinji's age!

**[Date A Live: Seirei]**

She had long, dark purple... no, night-colored hair that reached to her kneecaps, with eyes of a matching color... no, crystalline color. However, it was her outfit, rather than the unique colors that belonged to her hair and eyes, which caught Shinji and Mana's attention.

It was some kind of knight armor, only in the shape of a princess gown, with a black, cream, and pink color scheme to it, and had a set of purple-and-cream plated armor adorned her shoulders and waist. The Dress was open at the back, and made up into a black corset (which exposed a part of her cleavage) and a two-layered, knee-length skirt made of what looked to be solidified light, which had a pink-to-white gradient, as well as a pair of armored boots. She also wore a pair of gauntlets which have petal-like cuffs, which was topped off with a butterfly-shaped hair accessory that tied her hair into a ponytail that only was made with some of her lush waterfall of hair, both of which shared the same color scheme as her attire.

"A girl? But... what's she doing in there?" Shinji questioned, though in a manner that was asking himself more than asking his sister.

The girl in question slowly turned as she saw the two. In mere seconds, her eyes sharpened as she jumped onto the top of her throne, and grabbed the handle embedded into it, revealing said handle belonged to a sword that looked to be nearly as long as she was tall!

Said sword had a golden handle with an orb embedded onto each side of the hilt, with its blade being white and something from the far future, with its edge being crystalline, possibly made of diamond based on its color.

"W-What's she do-" Mana asked, feeling sweat cascade down her cheeks.

Her sentence would never be finished as the unknown girl swung the enigmatic blade towards them, and caused a wave of what looked to be dark energy with a lavender glow in the center to shoot across the area to their right, and completely raze the area while demolishing a building in its path.

Neither could do anything but close their eyes, though when they opened them again? The girl stood before them, her sword pointed at both their faces, and staring them down with an intense glare.

"I see, so you two must be the same as _them_." She said as if expecting it.

"Huh?" Mana blinked.

"You came here to kill me." The girl answered, her expression as unchanged as before.

Shinji and Mana fell on their butts as they heard her say that as if it was a _normal_ thing.

"Do not try denying you are here to kill me." She warned.

"Hold on, what are you even talking about!? Who are you, or... what are you, exactly? Why were you in the crater that Spacequake made!?" Shinji questioned.

"What?" The girl replied in surprise.

Looking at the two, she noticed how terrified they looked. They weren't even preparing any weapons or long-ranged attack, just looking at her, confused to what she was.

'Is this a trick to make me drop my guard, or... do they really have no idea about me? Are these forms similar to my own what they actually look like?' The girl questioned.

Right as she finished that thought, nine streaks of different colors flew through the air and exploded behind her.

The sound caught the attention of Shinji, Mana, and the girl as they saw each color rise into the air and shape themselves into an oval that held humanoid shapes inside. Shapes they couldn't make out due to some kind of visual interference.

"This power... it doesn't feel like _them_ , it feels more like..." The girl said, staring at them.

Each sphere soon had it color come into view. Those colors were white, gray, black, blue, red, yellow, green, orange, and indigo. It caused a reaction with the mysterious girl, who then emitted an aura that seemed to complete the set with a purple/violet color.

"S-Shinji?" Mana said.

"Yeah?" He asked.

"I'm scared!" She replied, hugging him tightly.

Shinji said nothing, feeling just as terrified.

The being in the white oval unleashed beams of white light, causing the mysterious girl to hold up her hand as a barrier of darkness completely stopped the beams.

"So, you really are the same as me, and yet even you reject my existence." She said.

As he heard those words, Shinji felt pain.

'That girl... for all the power she has, why?'

For a brief moment, the girl turned around to look at him and Mana, though he couldn't tell why she chose to do so.

'Why does she look so sad?'

The being in the white oval flew back, preparing a stronger attack as golden pillars spun around it. The beings in the other eight did the same, either readying some kind of weapon or attack, if not both, as the mysterious girl's sword began to glow.

Before either he or Mana could register what was happening, the powers of the girl and all nine beings collided with one another and created a white flash.

Mana screamed as it came closer, with Shinji holding her tightly as he stared at it.

_"Please wait, just a little while longer. I promise you... this time, everything will be OK, and this time I'll never let go. I won't make that mistake again."_

That was all he could remember before he lost all consciousness.

* * *

**And so, it begins again.**

**Like I said above, any worries about being spoiled by the original wouldn't matter, because the main twist for this version is that all of the main Spirits are already gathered in Tenguu City. Having them all here means they can suddenly throw a curve ball for any arc they weren't in for both canon, and the original story.**

**We already have a few mysteries lurking around as well. Ellen has taken Reine's place as the aid for Shinji's class, with whose side she's on left unknown. Shinji and Mana's parents have a link to the Spacequakes, and if Origami's right, maybe DEM Industries. Then we have whatever was chasing Tohka.**

**Now, for Shinji himself taking the place of Shido? I'd like to clear up ahead of time that is _not_ meant to be a surprise or twist of any kind. In the original story, I had him going by his real name, back when people thought his real name was "Shido Takamiya" and not "Shinji Takamiya" as we learned shortly after. As such, the main reason for Shido still being Shinji is that neither his first or last name were changed, and every other reason being hidden among the many mysteries this story will cover.**

**This remake will also make sure to give Mana a stronger presence than before. While she was definitely a prominent character in the original, it did feel like between her and Shinji, she wasn't as important, and yet I gave that impression at the beginning through how she and her brother were together. This time she could become the deuteragonist if me and kingpariah go that route, so if you like that idea? Let us know.**

**Until next time everyone, and stay awesome! ^^**


	2. Chapter 2

**Here we are with Chapter 2, and I'm glad that the first chapter had such a positive reaction, even if it was partially due to it being a rewrite.**

**Before we go any further? One thing I need to mention is the way I'm doing my ANs from now on has changed, as you may have already noticed if you're familiar with my other stories. I changed it due to feeling my old style for them was too much like rambling and killed a lot of the immersion for my stories by talking about things in a way that removed the chance for people to find out things for themselves. As such, they'll be short unless it's to either clarify a question that multiple people ask me, answer a guest review, or if there's something really important for me to bring up.**

**With that now said, here's a few things more specific to this story itself.**

**For everyone who has asked me questions so far? All of them are about something tied to a future reveal or something I can't fully guarantee will be in the story like I mentioned with anything from DAB, so I can't answer any of them. With how early we are into the story, there's a lot I can at best only give you all partial answers to.**

**The one thing I can say is a response to something said by the guest reviewer Hakuryuu, which is that I'm aware of Nia's age. This story's version of her was made younger to let her attend high school, as otherwise she'd be the only Spirit who didn't.**

**Minor changes like this, and the younger Spirits looking more like their age in the same way that Mukuro does, will occasionally pop up in the story. For one example I can mention here due to its nature? Unlike canon, none of the Spirits' Astral Dresses have high heels.**

**This might seem an odd change, but the reason for this is that some scenes in the story will put the Spirits into situations where they either can't fly, or it's more of a hindrance to be in the sky than running on the ground, as high heels aren't exactly meant for running in. Tohka in particular has Tenka's boots in her colors, as they're more functional versions of her heels.**

**With all of that out of the way, let's get this chapter started!**

* * *

**[Chapter 2 - Tohka Game Start]**

Shinji let out a loud gasp as he finally regained consciousness, feeling a heavy weight in his chest as he held it. Not long after letting out said gasp...

"Something wrong Shinji?" Hiroto inquired.

Blinking a few times, he looked around to see he was inside the Spacequake shelter for Raizen High, making his eyes widen slightly. Further surprising him was no one was speaking like his presence there was sudden.

The trio of girls were just talking to each other, Origami was fidgeting with her hair slightly, and Tamae was making sure to help everyone who needed anything. As for Hiroto, he was looking at him with his one eye raised due to some kind of strange stare towards his unexpected reaction.

"No, I'm alright. I just kind of dazed off for a moment." Shinji replied.

"That seemed kind of random for a mere daze." Hiroto remarked.

"Well... I think it was one of those dazes where you have a waking dream of sorts, since you're so dazed you almost fall asleep while staying awake." Shinji answered.

He soon grabbed his phone and stood up.

"Excuse me, I'm gonna check up on my sister." He excused himself.

Walking near an area where he could call in privacy, Shinji dialed his sister's number, and a few seconds later...

"Hey Shinji, are you calling about what I think you are?" Mana answered.

"I knew it! You remember that whole thing with that girl and everyone she was fighting, don't you?" Shinji said, a serious look on his face.

"Yeah! I thought it might be a dream, but since you were there, and we both seemingly woke up in that place to begin with..." She confirmed.

A brief silence followed that before Mana continued.

"The strangest thing is everyone's acting like I never left the shelter to begin with. Like either I was somehow here physically, but it was my mind that saw everything we just witnessed, or... I don't know actually. It's like something made it so my absence wouldn't be questioned regardless of why or how it was done." She added.

"I don't think it was that first one. While I have no evidence, my gut... it tells us we were really there in person, especially after how everything we saw seemed to defy what we know about physics." Shinji replied.

Mana hummed for a moment, scratching her head from her school's shelter.

"Yeah, I also feel like there's something that disproves that myself, but I can't tell what's the proof against it." She agreed, crossing her arms over their lack of answers.

Shinji thought for a moment, and then...

" _Please wait, just a little while longer. I promise you... this time, everything will be OK, and this time I'll never let go. I won't make that mistake again._ " He suddenly said.

"Huh?" Mana blinked in confusion.

"Oh, sorry. I wasn't talking to you. For some reason, those were words I recall hearing right before I blacked out." Shinji apologized.

"Weird, that almost sounds like it could have been said by..." Mana replied.

The two froze as those words played through their heads again, over and over.

"Shinji, those words you just said. Do you think the person you recognize them from could actually be one of our parents?" Mana asked.

"If it is, then something tells me our meeting with that girl was anything but a mere accident." Shinji replied, feeling himself sweat a little.

His sister also felt herself sweating after hearing those words.

"Anyways, I better hang up now before someone tries to listen in on what we're saying, so I'll see you after this is over. There are probably some details we can better share in person than through our phones." Shinji finished.

"Right, I'll see you soon big brother." Mana replied, smiling as she did.

He hung up the phone, then let out a sigh at the recent development.

Meanwhile, Origami felt a strange feeling in her chest, and then placed a hand on her head.

'Why do I feel something's off here? Am I becoming anemic or something?' She questioned.

The Yamai twins were also feeling strange, but for different reasons.

"Hey, is it just me, or do you feel like we're forgetting something?" Kaguya wondered, scratching her head in confusion.

"I agree, something seems out of place, but the reason it does seems to escape me." Yuzuru agreed.

Shinji didn't hear the twins' words because of how far away they were, but if he had? He might have started to put a few more pieces into the puzzle he had just been forced to complete.

* * *

Mana gave a worried look while putting her phone away, then moved her hand under her chin in a balled-up form as a certain thought hit her.

'I wonder... did that girl really make the Spacequake, or...' Mana thought.

" _I see, see, so you two must be the same as **them**. You came here to kill me._" Tohka's voice echoed.

Mana sweated as her most recent thought and those words echoed together, noticeable scaring her.

'Was it who she was talking about?' She wondered.

At that moment, Kotori walked up to Mana and put a hand on her shoulder, making her scream. Everyone jumped from that reaction, including Kotori herself.

"Whoa! Mana, calm down! It's just me." Kotori said in surprise.

Realizing it was just one of her best friends, Mana took a deep breath and relaxed herself.

"Sorry, I've just... been a little nervous since the break period. My brother thinks we finally have a lead on what happened to our parents." Mana replied, telling a partial lie.

It wasn't exactly false when she mentioned possible answers to her parents, due to what he learned from Origami, and the thoughts she and Shinji shared about how Tohka might be related to how and why they died.

"Wait, you have!?" Kotori asked in surprise.

"Yeah... though why are you so interested in that?" Mana asked.

"Uh, hello? Because my parents and yours were best friends! They're just as upset about their deaths, and I'm sure they'd want to know the truth as much as you two do." Kotori answered.

Mana blinked at that, then nodded her head.

"OK, fair point." She agreed.

While that was happening, Mukuro put a hand to her chest, feeling a tinge of tightness and loneliness form inside of it.

'Why does my heart ache right now?' Mukuro wondered.

Yoshino felt herself subconsciously rubbing her right hand over her left, and then noticed Natsumi taking heavy breaths, soon grabbing her concern once she held her head.

"Natsumi?" She asked.

"I... I need to use the bathroom, please excuse me." Natsumi suddenly said, looking away from her.

She got up and ran towards the bathroom, making a worried expression appear on Yoshino's face.

* * *

Meanwhile, in the Spacequake shelter for Rindouji, a gasp was heard from Nia as an idea suddenly came into her head... only for it to disappear as quickly as it came.

"Dang it!" She shouted.

"What, what happened?" Miku asked, giving her a confused look.

"I forgot an idea I thought of as quickly as it came! It's as annoying as getting Writer's Block near the end of your next story update!" Nia answered, rubbing her forehead.

She slammed her free hand against the wall...

*"SHATTER!"*

Which somehow caused her spare glasses to fall off and break, making her stare at them in disbelief.

"Again!?" Nia shouted.

Nia groaned as she pulled out another spare pair, which caught Kurumi's attention.

"How many spares do you have?" She asked.

"I'm actually running out. This is one of my last three before it's zero." Nia admitted, scratching her cheek in embarrassment.

Miku rubbed her back, right as Kurumi felt a tinge of sadness in her, pulling out her phone to show the image of a girl holding a cat.

"Sawa..." She said as she shed a tear.

Kurumi placed her phone over her heart before closing her eyes, letting her sadness show for a moment.

* * *

The scene shifted to a mysterious realm, which could best be described as an endless ocean of purple/violet energy that was mostly black where it was less focused, with bits of yellow forming between golden lines stretching across the landscape.

Sleeping within this landscape was the mysterious girl that Shinji and Mana encountered, who was currently wearing a translucent white nightgown made of solid light.

"Mu..."

She felt her eyes open, allowing her to notice where she was?

"Where... where am I?" She questioned, feeling a little scared.

"I was wondering when you'd wake up." A feminine voice replied.

The mysterious girl gasped upon hearing that voice, and began looking around until she noticed a clear-translucent mosaic before her. Once she felt her eyes focus, she managed to see what looked to be another girl around her age.

She couldn't make out any many details, but from what she could see? This girl had a lack of footwear, wore a dress that covered most of her body, and had long hair with a strand between the area where her eyes should be.

"Hello there." The hidden female answered, revealing her hidden mouth and one of her hidden arms as she waved to her.

The mysterious girl screamed and tried to form Sandalphon to protect herself... but it failed, as did her attempts to move.

"No, stay back!" She begged in a fearful tone.

As this being of mosaic got closer, while realizing she was completely immobile and unable to defend herself? The mysterious girl felt the fear she always hid behind her sad face rise to the surface as the increasing possibility of her death became more and more of a reality, until finally...

"Stop! I don't wanna die!" The girl screamed.

The noise-covered figure leaned towards her, making the mysterious girl close her eyes...

Right before she felt her cheek being lightly caressed, making her open her eyes in surprise.

"No need to worry, you're safe now." The hidden female smiled.

With those words and her touch, the mysterious girl's worries vanished, and a sudden calm and relaxed feeling enveloped her body. Almost as if she was being healed, which may have actually been what was happening if she could move her head to actually look at her body.

"Who... who are you?" She asked.

"I can't tell you just yet, but since it would be easier for you to call me something? You may call me... _Phantom_." The hidden female answered.

"Phantom?" The mysterious girl repeated.

"It means something that's not fully considered to be there, an illusion of sorts." She explained.

The mysterious girl still felt a little nervous around the being known as Phantom, which she noticed.

"How sad. Despite I considered this possibility, I didn't want to believe that the Nibelcole would make you act this way around me." Phantom said, lowering her head as regret was heard in her words.

This caught the mysterious girl's attention.

"Nibelcole? Wait, are you talking about _them_!?" She asked, referring to the monsters who attacked her last night.

Phantom nodded her head.

"I am." She confirmed.

"Then, if you know that, and with how your words implied you're familiar with me... do you know who I am!?" The girl continued.

"I do, very well." Phantom confirmed once again.

With those words, the mysterious girl gasped at she finally neared on the answers to who she was.

"And since your eyes are telling me what your next question is? Sorry, but I can't tell you what happened to your memories, at least... not just yet. There's still something you need to do first, but to help you trust me? I can give you this much for now." Phantom continued.

Placing her pointer finger on the mysterious girl's head, she blinked twice, then felt her eyes widen and a gasp leave her mouth as a group of kanji appeared in her mind.

The kanji... that made up her name!

"Tohka, my name is Tohka Yatogami!" She gasped, finally remembering it.

At the same time, she felt her fingers twitch before managing to sit up.

"How did you-" Tohka asked.

"Because I sealed your memories away, and for you to understand my reason for sealing them, I need you to listen to me." Phantom explained.

Realizing that this was her best chance for answers, Tohka reluctantly nodded.

"Good, now listen well Tohka, because I assure you that all of this is the truth. First, those nine beings who had the same powers as you? Despite what you might believe... none of them truly attacked you of their own will." She revealed.

"Wait, what do you mean?" Tohka asked in confusion.

"Right now, unlike you, their powers have not fully awakened. When you arrived in Tenguu City, the other Spirits' dormant powers began waking up. However, as it wasn't the right time for them to do so, their Angels took control of their bodies to protect them." Phantom explained.

"Spirits? Angels?" Tohka repeated, still confused.

However, it wasn't long before she realized those words may be related to what she and her sword were.

"Is that what kind of being I am? And what Sandalphon is?" She inquired, hoping she was right.

"They are. Spirits are a unique race of beings similar to the two you met, who are called Humans, while Angels are the weapons that protect them from being harmed. The armor you always wear is likewise referred to as an Astral Dress." Phantom confirmed.

She soon kneeled down to Tohka's level, smiling as their eyes, despite hers being invisible, stared into one another's.

"And those two are related to what I need you to do." She added.

"You mean, the ones who didn't seem to understand why I asked if they were going to kill me? If yes, I have an important question about one of them!" Tohka inquired.

Phantom tilted her head in response, curious to what her question was.

"I want to know why the taller of the two didn't have these on his chest!" Tohka asked, briefly pushing her breasts up.

That question caused Phantom's mouth to open as she blushed, making her entire mosaic turn pink from her blushing.

"Uh... t-the reason you need to find them is because t-they're important to the Spirits, and that's all I c-can say about it for now, so... please d-don't ask any further on that subject." Phantom replied.

'She completely ignored my question!' Tohka thought in surprise, also confused by why the mosaic cover turned pink.

Once Phantom was her usual colors again, she cleared her throat and continued.

"Anyways, the one who actually spoke to you? I need you to find him, and once you do? Let him show you the world through his eyes. Through humanity's eyes. If you can do that..." She said as she raised her left arm into view.

In her hands, she revealed a sphere of purple that made Tohka's heart pulse for a moment, as if they were connected.

"Then I will finally restore your sealed memories, including the reason why I had to seal them." Phantom promised.

Tohka gasped as she heard that.

"Really? You promise?" She asked.

"I _pinkie_ promise." Phantom replied.

Having no idea what that meant, Tohka blinked as her eyes became white circles, with multiple metaphorical question marks popping over her head.

"My promise to you is so serious that I can't go back on it." Phantom clarified.

"Oh." Tohka replied.

She then felt her eyes widen as those words fully hit her.

"Oh!" Tohka repeated.

Phantom held out her pinkie, wiggling it a bit.

"Just wraps your around mine and our promise is set." Phantom explained.

Tohka slowly did the same, and then their pinkies curled, and... that was it.

"Wait, that's it?" She asked.

"Yeah, that's it. Did you think our fingers would glow or something like that?" Phantom asked.

Tohka said nothing and then looked away.

"No?" She lied, and quite obviously at that.

Phantom simply rolled her unseen eyes, using that to her advantage, and said nothing else.

"So, uh... where am I exactly? And how do I get back to wherever those two are?" Tohka asked.

"You're already there, because right now, I'm talking to you through here." Phantom answered.

She then pointed at Tohka's heart.

That left Tohka confused, making Phantom giggle as she remembered that Tohka had forgotten that as well, leading her to put her hand on her head to pet it.

"I'll explain more later. For now, just know you never left where you were, and you'll realize that right about... now." Phantom explained, albeit in a vague way.

Before Tohka could ask? She saw the world turn white, then fell backwards.

* * *

Everyone was waiting in their respective Spacequake Shelters, doing whatever they could to pass the time, when suddenly...

**"Attention! The recent Spacequake's threat has passed, and all repairs have been completed. Please begin exiting the Shelters in an orderly fashion, and have a nice day."**

Hearing that caused everyone to either smile or let out a sigh of relief.

"Finally, glad all of that is over. These shelters get really uncomfortable to be in after an hour or two." Hiroto said, stretching out his arms.

"Well, you were sitting the whole time." Shinji mentioned.

"And only standing would have been any different?" Hiroto questioned.

"OK, fair point." Shinji admitted.

As everyone began heading home, Shinji opened his phone to call Mana one last time for a Spacequake related reason. It didn't take long before she answered.

"Hello?" Mana greeted.

"Just wanted to know if you're still heading out with your friends or not after the Spacequake." He asked.

"Yeah, we still are. What about you?" She inquired.

"I think I'll just head home and consider what electives I should be taking for the year. I'll probably pass by Danny's on the way, so don't be surprised if you see me." Shinji answered.

"OK, I should be home in about an hour or two." Mana replied.

"Got it. See you soon." Shinji said with a smile.

Right as he put his phone away, Shinji took his first step out of the Spacequake Shelter and headed home.

* * *

A weak groan could be heard from a nearby alley, one that sounded feminine, as the owner of the groaning voice began to regain consciousness. While initially showing some difficulty in doing so, they quickly managed to get on their feet.

Once they stood up and began walking towards the nearest rays of sunlight, the voice was revealed to be Tohka's, who was currently holding her throbbing head.

"What... happened? Where... am I?" Tohka asked, feeling the pain begin to fade.

Once her headache fully faded away, she began to focus on what was laid beyond the alley, and saw the now repaired Tenguu City as its citizens walked about without a care or worry. Her eyes widened as she saw this.

'They... they all look like me!' She thought.

At that moment, Tohka remembered her conversation with Phantom, which now seemed like it was part of dream. However, there was one thing that made her wonder if it may have been more than that.

It was her name. Even after waking up to the sight before her, it still felt true.

'Wait... was that a sign that I'm finally regaining my memories?' Tohka thought.

Looking at the Humans walking past her, Tohka noticed they seemed to be just as oblivious to her existence as Shinji and Mana, and that there wasn't a Nibelcole in sight. Then she recalled how her dream had said she needed to find Shinji.

'Alright, it's settled. I need to-' She decided, preparing to walk forward.

However, she quickly stopped her foot and then pulled it back to its prior spot, remembering how Shinji and Mana reacted to seeing her the first time. They were afraid of her.

"Bad idea. These Humans don't know me, and I don't know them either." She realized.

Tohka thought about what she could and she couldn't do, especially since no matter what did? It would require her to leave the alley.

"I have to find those two, or at least the taller one, since he might be more willing to talk with me. The problem is my Astral Dress might stand out, and if I draw in the wrong attention... who knows what will happen?" Tohka thought aloud.

At that moment, she recalled the outfits that Shinji and Mana were wearing, then poked her head out of the alley to compare them to what others wore. Then she saw what they lacked compared to her Astral Dress as an extra precaution.

"From what I can see, none of these outfits resemble Adonai Melek, especially the areas where it glows. It also seems like some of them are related to some kind of group. As such, I'll need to pick my appearance based on something that doesn't look tied to anything." She said to herself, briefly closing her eyes.

She looked back at everyone, humming to herself as she placed a hand under her chin.

After seeing the kind of outfits everyone wore and the various colors tied to all of them, Tohka decided on what her clothes should look like and closed her eyes again, making her Astral Dress dissolve into particles and then swirl around her as they took a new form.

Her incredibly large bosom, which was noticeably bigger than Origami's, was revealed, then quickly covered by her new outfit. It was a fuchsia and black striped shirt, with a pink blouse over it that was tied over her gifted chest, pale blue-gray jean shorts that showed off her legs, and a pair of sandals. The one part of her Astral Dress that didn't change was her ribbon, since she couldn't part with it.

"Wow, not bad." Tohka admitted, moving her arms and head around to get a better look at it and how it looked on her.

After she was done looking, the moment of truth came as she looked towards the alley's exit, making her feel nervous.

'Please let me blend in! Please let me blend in!' She begged.

Tohka then walked into public view, waiting for some kind of panic or something similar to happen with her appearance, and... nothing happened.

Realizing she had managed to blend in as a normal person, Tohka let out a sigh of relief, and began her search for Shinji and the answers he held.

"Oh?"

As she walked through the city, Tohka failed to notice someone looking at her with a smile that made it clear they knew what she really was, or at least that she wasn't an ordinary girl. They pulled out their phone, finding a certain contact as they initiated a call.

* * *

The scene opens to somewhere in the night sky that currently covered the Western Hemisphere.

While the naked eye couldn't see it, there was a ship floating in the air that was being cloaked by a Realizer that induced invisibility, with a second Realizer that induced what seemed like intangibility to allow things as small as birds and/or as large as other flying vehicles to safely fly through the ship without crashing into it.

Inside the ship, a man could be seen sitting on a couch as he held a phone to his ear.

"Thanks for letting me know Barrett, I'll make sure to deal with it immediately." He replied.

The man put his phone away as he turned his attention back to the tablet he was holding, which showed various data for a large company with a semi-global presence across the world.

He was shown to have short, spiky hair of an ash blonde color and soulless blue eyes that made him look like he was dead. His attire consisted of a faded black business suit, with matching business pants, black business shoes, and a white tie.

When paired with his nearly white hair and the dead, soulless look in the blue orbs that were his eyes? This man had a very unsettling appearance.

*"RING!"*

The man looked at his phone, surprised by the call.

"Hmm... I'm not expecting anyone, which would mean this isn't a business-related call." He realized, smirking at the latter half of his sentence.

He answered his phone, then put it by his left ear.

"This is Director Westcott of DEM Industries speaking, who am I currently talking to?" The man inquired.

"This is Agent Black Crow, sir, and I have some information you'll _really_ love." A distorted voice replied.

Westcott's left eye raised after hearing that.

"Alright, I'm listening." Westcott replied.

Black Crow smirked from where they were calling from.

"It seems that I may have found a Spirit for you to capture, but the surprising part? She _isn't_ the Spirit of Origin, and looks to be much weaker, meaning she'll be much easier to capture... yet just as rewarding." They answered.

Westcott's eyes widened at that, only partially believing what he heard.

At least for right now.

"Another Spirit is in this world? You're certain of this?" He inquired.

"I was able to spot a girl who was wearing a very unique ribbon in her hair, and then noticed she came from near an alley. One that had a strong trace of lingering Reiryoku." Black Crow answered.

Those words caused Westcott to smirk, now believing in what he heard as he showed great interest in it.

"Fascinating." He replied.

"So, what should I do?" Black Crow inquired.

"Keep analyzing her for now, and once we get more information on her abilities, I'll decide on how we can best deal with her. After all, if she's strong enough, then I have the perfect excuse to unleash my greatest weapon to not only capture this Spirit... but to flush those traitors out of hiding." Westcott ordered.

"Understood, sir. Black Crow out." They replied.

The call ended, and Westcott let out a small chuckle as a female silhouette walked closer to him.

"So, did I hear all of that correctly? Is there really-" She inquired.

"Yes, it seems so, and it's just so... amazing!" Westcott answered.

He then covered the right side of his face with his right hand, his chuckling turning into full-blown laughter as this reality truly sunk in.

"In all of the years since _she_ came into the world, not once did I believe that another Spirit could be born, but it seems that I was wrong! How incredibly funny this is to think about..." He continued.

Westcott soon pulled his hand off his head, revealing a creepy smile that almost seemed natural for him.

"And yet, how delightful it is that our dream is almost a reality." He finished.

Looking at his tablet again, Westcott smiled at the image of a certain someone.

* * *

The walk home for Shinji was mainly uneventful. In fact, it was kind of boring to the point he had yawned about three times already, and expected to do so at least once more before he made it home.

However, that uneventful walk suddenly became more eventful when he walked into a certain area.

"It was here..." He remembered.

Despite that all of the buildings had been repaired and the crater had been filled up, there was no doubt about it. Shinji was standing in the same area where the most recent Spacequake had gone off, and where he and Mana met Tohka, and his proof for this?

A unique piece of stone with a familiar symbol/crest etched into it, which he was certain was once a piece of the otherworldly substance that Tohka's throne was made of.

"Me and my sister... face to face with a Spacequake without getting killed. That girl who possessed such strength, yet had such a sad face as if she only knew of pain. All of those colorful figures she fought against... right before we ended up returning to the shelters without any explanation. All of that happened, right here." He said, looking at the stone fragment before him.

He reached down to pick it up, feeling the coldness of metal on it as his fingers traced the markings etched into it.

At that same moment, Tohka walked into the area without recognizing it, and then gave a silent gasp in response.

"It's you!" She realized as she saw him.

"To think someone that looks like a teenage girl, provided she isn't one with some kind of strange powers, could be related to or even the cause of all this destruction. If I were to tell anyone about it... they'd think I was crazy." He said, chuckling slightly.

Hearing him say nothing to her, Tohka blinked a few times before her ribbon briefly sharpened itself as she began to growl, followed by her swinging her arms up and down.

"Hey, hello? I'm over here!" Tohka shouted.

Shinji let out a sigh as he closed his eyes.

"As stupid as it sounds? I kind of wish I could see that girl again, regardless of the reason why." Shinji admitted.

With that response, Tohka's ribbon sharpened again as she rose her hand, feeling the fuse on her temper go out.

**"Adonai Melek!"**

She re-equipped her Astral Dress and formed a black orb at the end of her pointer finger, and without any kind of command or warning, shot it at what was a former fragment of her throne while Shinji was holding it.

"*BANG!"*

He flinched and felt himself go pale as his eyes widened, seeing just a small bit of the fragment in his hand.

"W-What the hell!?" He questioned.

"Stop ignoring me!" Tohka screamed.

Hearing that voice, Shinji's eyes widened as he turned to his left and saw Tohka, immediately recognizing her by her night-colored hair and gown-shaped armor.

"It's you... it's really you!" Shinji exclaimed, pointing at her in disbelief.

Tohka blinked at those words, but understood his reaction a moment later.

"Hold on, did you only just notice me? Then you must be an idiot." She replied with half-lidded eyes.

Shinji shook his head as he regained his senses.

"Why are you here? Do you plan to hunt me and my sister down because you don't believe what I told you?" He questioned, sounding afraid.

It was an odd feeling for Tohka to see someone question her that way for once, but she realized that she deserved it after their last encounter.

"No, I-" She answered.

However, before Tohka could even say the rest?

*"GRUMBLE!"*

She felt her eyes widen at the sound, right before they got all droopy and she fell onto her knees, which made Shinji's eyes widen.

"Hey, are you OK?" Shinji questioned.

"Stupid noise... why are you bothering me again now of all times?" Tohka questioned, holding onto her stomach as she felt flashes of pain go through it.

Looking at her stomach, Shinji realized what might be going on.

"Uh... this might sound like a strange question, but what do you use your mouth for?" He asked.

"Huh? For talking and breathing of course, you can't use it for anything else." Tohka answered.

"So, you don't eat then?" Shinji continued.

Tohka blinked at his reply, not recognizing that word.

"Eat?" She repeated.

With that response, Shinji looked at her in shock, recalling what he said right before noticing Tohka.

'Is it possible that she is Human, or needs to eat like one while she's here on Earth?' He wondered.

He looked at her stomach before looking at her face again.

"By any chance, does it feel like something's missing around here?" Shinji asked, pointing at his stomach.

"Missing?" She repeated.

Focusing where her arms currently where, Tohka realized it did feel like there was something missing, especially since her last encounter with Nibelcole on the night before she arrived in Tenguu City.

"Now that you mention it... yeah, it does feel like something's missing." She confirmed.

"I knew it." Shinji replied.

Tohka blinked in confusion.

"Are you able to hide somewhere? Because I need to somehow find you clothes and then get you to a-" Shinji requested.

"No need, I already have them." Tohka replied.

"Say what now?" He asked in surprise.

He got his answer when Tohka's body began to glow again, making him blush at seeing the outline of Tohka's figure until her Astral Dress transformed back into the clothes she wore for her Human disguise.

"How did you-!?" Shinji exclaimed, his eyes white with shock at the sight.

"The armor you usually seen me wearing is the default form of my Astral Dress, which I can transform into any form of clothing at the cost of limiting its usual protection." Tohka explained, tugging on her left sleeve.

After seeing what he did, Shinji held up a finger as he took a moment to breathe.

"Well, that takes care of the main worry I had, and explains how you managed to find me without causing a panic from those who could have seen you in that armor." He said, still feeling a little unnerved from what he just saw.

He then grabbed Tohka by the hand, surprising her as Shinji began pulling her somewhere.

"W-Whoa! What are you doing!?" She shouted in surprise.

"Just trust me, OK!" He shouted, looking at her with a smile.

That smile made her blush slightly. It was the first time she had ever seen a positive reaction aimed towards her, and it was such a surprise that she was left speechless as Shinji continued leading the two of them to wherever he was going.

However, neither of them noticed a certain someone watching them with a dark smile on their face as they took out their phone.

"This is Agent Black Crow reporting. I have video footage of the Spirit, and I'm now sending it to you for verification." They stated.

Moving their free hand to reveal a tablet they had hidden in the shadows, with a red circle blinking on its screen to confirm it had been recording, Black Crow sent the video to his boss.

* * *

Westcott soon received the video recording from Black Crow, which didn't have any sound, and saw Tohka Yatogami as she tried to get Shinji's attention.

"Hmm..." Westcott hummed, not seeing anything out of the ordinary.

"Just give it a moment. You need to see this to see what confirms she's a Spirit." Black Crow replied.

Westcott did, and then... he saw it.

His eyes widened as she summoned her Astral Dress and blasted at something with her Reiryoku, making him smirk as he saw the proof he was looking for.

"This girl really is another Spirit, amazing! You did your job well Black-" He praised.

The video then revealed Tohka appearing before Shinji, which made his eyes widen.

"Wait, stop the video." Westcott ordered.

Black Crow was surprised by this, but immediately did so as Westcott's eyes focused on Shinji, staying wide as if the boy were a ghost.

"Can it really be?" He whispered.

Westcott opened an image from his tablet's archives, and his eyes widen after seeing it.

'I don't believe it, there's no way." He thought.

"Sir, is something wrong?" Black Crow asked.

"Not at all. It seems I just mistook part of the camera static as something else." Westcott lied.

"Alright then. So, what should I do next?" They inquired.

"Use one of the mobile cameras we have above the city, and keep an eye on both of them. The fact this Spirit is making contact with that boy may lead to something." He ordered.

"Got it, sir. Black Crow out." They replied.

After their line was disconnected, a small scowl formed on Westcott's face.

"This doesn't make sense. Just how can that boy be here?" He demanded.

He soon connected to the cameras' live feed.

* * *

Inside of Danny's, the sight of Mana and her friends could be seen as they ate by one of the window booths. Everything seemed normal, with Mana grabbing her glass to take a drink of water.

"Whoa! Why are there so many people here!?" Tohka questioned.

"That's... hard to explained." Shinji answered the best he could.

Only to see her brother with Tohka, as the former quickly pulled her past the area where the window was, and do a spit take against it. As she coughed, she failed to notice her friends go into a trance.

'D-Did I really just see that!?' Mana thought, knowing she couldn't scream inside the restaurant.

As they continued walking, Tohka suddenly managed to stop Shinji's pull as a delightful scent entered her nose, getting Shinji's attention as she saw her sniffing something. Not long after she did? The hungry Spirit was staring through the glass of a small bakery.

Her eyes zeroed in on a basket filled with Kinako Bread, making her breath against it as her nose realized it was creating the scent that had been tickling her nose.

"Hey, what's in here?" She asked.

"That would be Kinako Bread, which is a type of food. Do you want me to get you some?" Shinji asked.

Tohka looked at him before silently nodding her head as if she was a puppy using its cuteness to beg.

'Why does she look so cute while doing that?' He wondered.

Shinji walked inside, making Tohka watch as he bought a piece of bread and then came back outside.

"So, I just put this in my mouth?" She asked.

"Yeah... though not all at once. If you do, then you risk being unable to breath because it will clogs your throat." Shinji explained.

Tohka paled at a thought bubble showing her with her neck shaped like the bread hit her mind, making her shake her head.

'That almost scares me more than the Nibelcole...' She thought.

Shinji handed Tohka the loaf of bread, and she took a deep breath before taking her first bite.

*"GASP!"*

Right after that first bite, Shinji's eyes widen as she instantly devoured the rest of it like she was a black hole.

"Wow, that was amazing!" Tohka exclaimed.

Her stomach grumbled again, putting an annoyed look on her face.

"Really!?" She complained.

"Calm down, you just need to eat more." Shinji reassured her.

"Wait, really? Then what else can I have?" Tohka asked.

"Since your nose brought you to the bread, how about we let it decide?" He suggested.

"Oh, that makes sense!" She realized.

Right as she said that, she noticed a boy walking towards a trash bin with an empty juice box in his hand.

"Look mama." He called.

He threw it into the trash.

"See? I threw it in the trash, all by myself." He smiled.

"My, what a good boy you are." His mother said.

Tohka watched him pat her son's head, then noticed the paper she was holding. Once the pair disappeared, she did the same, then ran back and bowed to be pet as her ribbon flapped like a butterfly.

Despite being surprised by this, Shinji smiled and chuckled before doing so. After doing so, Tohka felt a strange warmth in her chest and smiled, surprising Shinji.

"You finally smiled." He softly said.

Tohka looked at him in confusion.

"You know, this." He explained.

He used his fingers to lift his mouth into a smile, making Tohka feel her face, though she couldn't feel it.

"Uh... how about I just get a picture the next time you do it?" He suggested.

"Picture?" She repeated, like with every word she didn't have any knowledge about.

Shinji laughed and pulled out one of Mana and himself.

"Basically, a photo is a copy of something people see, but you need a certain object to make one." He explained.

"Whoa, really!?" She asked, smiling again.

He quickly took out his phone and took a picture, making Tohka blink.

"There it is, look." Shinji said, turning his phone around.

Tohka looked to see the moment she was smiling... and for some reason, felt herself blushing as she smiled at the sight.

"That's a smile? I don't know why, but it makes me feel fuzzy inside." She stated.

"What you feel is called being happy. It's the opposite of what I saw your face look like when we first met." Shinji explained, knowing he wouldn't like this part.

"Hmm?" Tohka blinked.

"When you looked like this." Shinji explained, making a sad face.

Tohka froze up as he copied the face she looked at him with.

"I don't like that... I've always felt like that. What is it, and why does it always hurt?" Tohka asked.

"That feeling is called being sad, and no one likes to feel that way." Shinji explained, closing his eyes.

Hearing that surprised Tohka.

"Humans can be sad too? Is this what my dream meant?" Tohka realized.

"Your dream?" Shinji said in surprise.

Right after he said that, his eyes widened.

"Is this why you came to find me?" He realized.

Tohka nodded her head.

"I had this dream where someone told me that I should find you, to see the world through Humanity's eyes, and... what did you call that person with you?" She answered.

"My sister." Shinji answered.

"Right, because you two... were as scared of me as I am of _them_." Tohka continued.

Shinji pet her head again, making her blush as she looked at Shinji, seeing him smile.

"Of course I'll help, but first? You need to tell me everything. Though before we do that, let's get more food in your belly." He promised.

Tohka smiled at that.

"Thank you... uh, what was your name again?" Tohka asked.

"I didn't tell you, actually, and I'm guessing by how you know what a name is, that you have one too?" Shinji inquired.

She nodded her head.

"My name is Shinji Takamiya, and you?" He greeted.

"Tohka Yatogami, based on what I can remember." She replied.

Shinji blinked as he realized how fitting her name was for today, almost as if that wasn't a coincidence, but chose not to say anything.

Meanwhile, at the same time he was thinking that? Tohka's noise picked up another delicious scent.

"Hey, there's something yummy smelling that way!" Tohka smiled.

Shinji turned to see Tohka starting to run off, making him panic.

"Wait, Tohka! I need you to stay near me!" He shouted as he ran after her.

As the two ran by? The trio of Ai, Mai, and Mii soon noticed them, with their attention focused more on Tohka.

"Do any of you recognize that girl Shinji's with?" Ai asked.

"No, but she's got a good sense of fashion." Mai replied.

"Yeah, that ribbon of hers is really pretty." Mii agreed.

From a gap between some nearby buildings, Black Crow was continuing his observation of the duo while taking a bite of a small snack bar.

* * *

Sometime later, at Tenguu Park, Tohka was eating all the food she had chosen. Shinji watched as she inhaled everything like a human garbage disposal.

"I can't believe all of these wonderfully delicious things are types of food!" Tohka happily exclaimed.

"Tohka, please tell me your stomach is at least somewhat filled, because I don't have any money left to buy more food." Shinji said, looking understandably nervous.

Stuffing a cone of vanilla ice cream into her mouth, Tohka let out a happy sigh.

"Yep, I'm good." She replied, right before slurping they last of her fruit punch.

Shinji sighed in relief as she heard that.

"Now that we have that your hunger quelled, can you tell me about what you are?" He asked.

Tohka was silent for a moment, wondering how she should begin.

"If it helps, why don't you start with what you are? After all, earlier today, you implied that you're either aren't Human or don't know if you are." Shinji suggested.

"Well, there isn't much I really now. All that I do know is what I knew when I first woke up and what I might have slowly remembering through my recent dream. The most important thing would be... that I'm something called a Spirit." Tohka answered.

"A Spirit?" Shinji repeated.

"Yeah, with my Sword, which I know by the name of Sandalphon, being what's called an Angel." She confirmed, continuing after she did.

Shinji put his hand under his chin.

'It sounds like she's some kind of deity, but aren't Angels related to the Bible?' He thought.

He soon nodded for her to continue, so she did.

"I honestly don't know what kind of being I truly am, both compared to Humans and in general, and most of what I think may be my memories are... scattered, or distorted." Tohka said as she placed her hands together.

She then tightened both her hands into fists.

"The earliest thing I can remember is appearing somewhere in this world, and the hundreds of times I've seen the sky switch between blue and black." She added.

"That's awful." Shinji replied.

It took a moment, but he soon realized Tohka's reply had given the implication that she had spent what sounded like at least a hundred days without eating any food.

"Wait, how have you survived without food if you didn't know what it was before today!?" He asked in disbelief.

"I think it has to do with my powers. When the sky is black, or I'm hiding in the shadows, I don't feel hungry. That's also when I'm safest." She replied, forming a dark orb on her fingertip.

"At night? Oh, then that orb and your slash waves must be a form of solidified darkness." Shinji theorized, identifying her power's nature.

Tohka tilted her head, blinking once in confusion.

"You said that you don't feel hungry when hiding in the shadows or when the sky is black, when it's night. That implies you can manipulate darkness as a way to both defend yourself and gain substance in place of food." He explained.

"So, that's what you would call my power? Is that why that white seems to be related to how strong I am?" Tohka asked.

"That white sphere is what we call the moon, and most likely, since the moon is associated with the night." Shinji answered.

At that moment, he realized they had fallen into a tangent without meaning to.

"Moving on, you said your earliest memory is of this world. Do you mind describing it to me?" He asked.

Tohka lowered her head, then took a deep breath as she closed her eyes.

"I first woke up seeing nothing but the destroyed ruins of buildings like the ones from before, having no idea what I was even there... and then, _they_ came and attacked me." She began.

"Who are... _they_ , exactly?" Shinji inquired.

"The Nibelcole." Tohka answered.

Shinji felt himself make an audible gulp as he heard that, right as Tohka remembered the first time she saw those monsters.

* * *

_Feeling her eyes open for the first time she could actually remember, Tohka saw the ruined remains of a City somewhere in Japan._

_"What is this? Where am I, and... who am I?" She asked._

_Looking at herself, Tohka managed to identify some of her appearance through her hair and the same nightgown of light she wore from when she was speaking with Phantom._

_As she looked around, she noticed something._

_"Hmm?"_

_Walking closer, she saw a reflection, causing her to learn what she looked like._

_"This is... me?" Tohka asked herself, touching it._

_*"RIP!"*_

_Hearing that sound caused Tohka to jump, making her sweat as her instincts sensed danger._

_"W-What was that?" She asked._

_Suddenly, a large cut with the colors seen in a Spacequake formed above the ground that was behind her._

_Tohka tensed at the sound, then turned to see some kind of... dimensional fissure, right as something started to rip itself out of the cut._

_"W-What's happening?" Tohka stuttered, slowly backing away from the growing rip._

_After a few more seconds, Tohka saw something fall out of the dimensional fissure, making her stare at it as it slowly rose its head up._

**[Date A Live: Furious Anger]**

_It had a dark purple/violet body with humanoid shape, one like a shadow without any features like a generic stick person. However, it was its face that would truly terrify Tohka, because of one reason alone._

_There was nothing on it, nothing... except two glowing circles of a red-pink color. Circles that were likely its eyes._

_"What... what are you?" She asked, taking a few steps back._

_As the new creature, a Nibelcole, made a ghostly sound? Tohka didn't hear it as she felt her instinct shout words that said multiple warnings to her._

**_[Danger]_ **

_This creature wasn't friendly, especially with the stare it was giving her._

**_[Pain]_ **

_It was going to hurt her if she let it get close._

**_[Nothing]_ **

_Worst of all? Should it succeed, that's all she would feel, and all she would be._

_Nothing, because that meant she was dead._

_"Run..." Tohka said, hearing the last word._

_And she did, but that was when the Nibelcole chose to rush ahead and strike her._

_*"SLASH!"*_

_She froze as this caused her to see drops of red liquid fall in the air, then turn to see five lined up cuts on her arm, with the Nibelcole's hand having transformed itself into a claw._

_The pain finally reached her mind as she let out a scream, holding the cut._

_*"RIP!"*_

_*"RIP!"*_

_*"RIP!"*_

_Tohka's eyes widened as more dimensional fissures formed, which lead to a dozen Nibelcole appearing before her._

_"Help me..." Tohka begged._

_All of the Nibelcole lunged towards Tohka, with the one with her blood on its currently clawed hand in the front._

_"HELP ME!"_

_Without any warning, a large flash suddenly pushed the Nibelcole into the nearest walls._

_Tohka gasped as she saw a purple/violet energy sphere leave her body. Not long after it did, she saw it transform into the form of Sandalphon._

_"Did you... protect me?" She asked._

_Sandalphon floated towards her, making Tohka grab it as a strange feeling enveloped her body._

**_"Adonai... Melek?"_ **

_Her body glowed purple as her Astral Dress formed, with the cuts on her arm fading as a purple energy flared out of them._

_("It will be alright, master. I'm here to protect you. Just manifest your desires into my swing, and slay these monsters!")_

_She heard no words being spoken or sounds being produced, but Tohka knew this sword was speaking to her._

_Forming a serious expression on her face, Tohka grabbed it with both hands and readied herself for a swing._

**_"SANDALPHON!"_ **

_With a mighty downward swing of her arms? The area in front of Tohka was enveloped by a wave of darkness, knocking all of the Nibelcole away._

_The exception was the one in front of her, which let out a pained shriek before it dissolved into thin air._

_*"CRACK!"*_

_Hearing a noise behind her, Tohka turned around and saw a Nibelcole break a section of her armor._

_"Die, you bastard!" She screamed._

_She immediately sliced the attacking Nibelcole in two, causing both halves to dissolve._

**[Insert Song End]**

_The surviving ten all let out ghostly noises as they surrounded her like a hunting pack._

_"I will survive... no matter what!" Tohka screamed._

_She jumped into the air, raising her Angel as she prepared herself to defeat the remaining Nibelcole._

* * *

Taking a deep breath as she finished her story, she saw the shock in Shinji's eyes, which were shaking.

"Ever since then? I've had to fight, discover more about my powers, and learn to fight during the night and hide during the day to best survive the various Nibelcole attacks. Occasionally, I'd end up blacking out in an endless constant cycle. I thought that was all it was... until one day, when I saw green and blue on the ground." Tohka continued.

"Grass and the ocean." Shinji realized.

Tohka wasn't sure what those were, so she simply shrugged in response.

"When I saw that, I started to realize I was being pulled somewhere, and I thought the Nibelcole were doing it at first, but now? Maybe that pull was bringing me here." She realized.

Shinji was about to say that was odd, but then... he remembered how he and Mana ended up getting near the Spacequake.

"Now that you mention it, that sounds a lot like why Mana and I were even at the crater where we met you." He mentioned.

"Huh?" Tohka asked in confusion.

"Normally, we hide from the Spacequakes when they happen. All that damage by the crater should say how dangerous it is for a Human to get anywhere near one." Shinji explained.

Tohka recalled the damaged cities she had seen for most of her life, then nodded in understanding.

"And as usual, Mana and I were heading towards our school's respective shelters... except, for some unexplained reason, something caused us to walk towards the site of the Spacequake against our control." He revealed.

"Like... something pulled you there?" Tohka asked.

A gasp left her mouth.

'Did something try to make us meet, or... maybe some _one_?' She realized.

While she was lost in thought, Origami walked into the area with a bag of groceries in her hands and a worried expression on her face.

"How did I end up in the park?" She asked herself.

At that moment, Origami noticed Shinji and Tohka sitting the park bench.

"Is that Shinji over there? Maybe he can help-"

Before Origami could finish, she suddenly froze as her eyes went into a trance.

Meanwhile, Black Crow was monitoring the two while they called Westcott.

"Sir, I think they're just talking. We may need to get more involved?" They suggested as they continued watching.

"I agree. Deploy three Bandersnatch, and put them on their autonomous setting." He replied.

Black Crow saw their phone use a tiny Realizer to generate three gray spheres into their hand.

"Here goes." Black Crow smirked.

They tossed all three spheres into the area and looked at the camera... only to see the transmission disappear.

"What the hell!?" Black Crow said in confusion.

"Hmm..." Westcott hummed through the phone.

At the same time that was happening, Shinji and Tohka looked up, seeing the area around them became a mix of the park and the strange realm that Tohka met Phantom in.

"What just happened!?" Shinji asked.

**[Date A Live III: AHIH]**

"This feels... familiar.' Tohka realized.

At that very moment, a familiar white pillar of light fired into the sky, piercing the clouds.

**"Ehyeh."**

Hearing that made Tohka's eyes widen. However, she didn't have time to warn Shinji as they saw the Spirit they remembered as the white being appear before them.

**"Metatron."**

A flash of light went off as golden, feather-like pillars, appeared around her.

"Shinji, run now!" Tohka ordered, staring at her.

"Huh?" He blinked.

"This isn't a Nibelcole, but it's still something that wants to fight me, and I can't fight while protecting you. Now go, run!" She shouted.

Shinji looked at Tohka for a moment, but sighed as he realized she was right.

"OK, just stay safe." He said before running off.

Tohka smiled before looking at her fellow Spirit.

**"Adonai Melek!"**

Her clothes quickly transformed back into her Astral Dress, followed by raising a hand into the air.

**"Sandalphon!"**

Tohka manifested her Angel, and readied it as her eyes met with her fellow Spirit's.

She then jumped into the air with a loud shout, and began her battle with Origami.

* * *

**Whoa, now that's what I call a cliffhanger!**

**Thanks to Phantom's intervention, Shinji and Tohka are getting along and making some progress on the answers tied to each of their mysterious pasts, but a DEM agent has discovered them and leaked their existence to Westcott, slowly setting everything into motion.**

**On top of that, it seems just getting near Tohka is causing the other Spirits to enter a trance-like state that causes their powers to partially awaken.**

**For now, it seems that Tohka, Shinji, and eventually Mana are own their own as their future allies and soon to be enemies are surrounding them from all sides and pushing them into a defensive corner. Let's hope that something changes soon, or this could be the end for our heroes.**

**Until next time everyone, and stay awesome! ^^**


	3. Chapter 3

**Surprise everyone! This isn't a single update, but a double!**

**Back when I made the original story, all of the V1 adaption had been posted all at once due to 2017 being a year where April 10th just happened to be on a Monday, which made it an opportunity that I couldn't miss. Since there was no way for me to do that this time? I decided to make a double update for the first arc as the next best thing.**

**I hope all of you enjoy this double update and the end of this remake's first arc.**

* * *

**[Chapter 3 - From Zero to Ten, Part 1]**

Shinji tried to run outside the park, but quickly found the strange energy seemed to be some kind of dimensional barrier, so he was forced to hide behind a tree.

He then spotted Tohka, right as she and Origami were shot away from each other by a sudden recoil that was seemingly created from the impact of her initial strike. This let her see Shinji was still in the park's borders.

"Shinji? Why are you-" She asked in surprise.

"There's some kind of energy blockade that's keeping me from getting out, and likely keeping others from getting in. The only way I can stay away out of danger is if you can keep this fight from spreading beyond the center of the park." Shinji explained while keeping an eye out for Origami.

Tohka let out a silent gasp, then grit her teeth.

"If the attacks get near you? Move out of the way immediately, but only when you can tell there's no incoming fire that you could be exposed to." Tohka requested.

"Got it." He promised.

Origami soon floated back into view, holding out her arms as her body positioned itself like a cross.

**"Shemesh!"**

Metatron soon moved around her and into a position that resembled the rays of the sun, which began spinning clockwise as they released particles of light across the area.

*"BANG! BANG! BOOM!"*

Tohka gasped as they began to explode like small, but incredibly fast grenades, which forced her to grab Shinji and jump into the air to both dodge them and keep Shinji out of harm's way. Once the assault ended, she took a moment to catch her breath.

"Be careful! It looks like they have the power of light, and I bet that means the sun's presence helps them like the night and the moon do for you, and more than likely... it also means your darkness is weak to it." Shinji warned.

"What makes you say that?" Tohka asked, suddenly feeling nervous from those words.

"During the day, all darkness depends on the light to manifest, but at night? It's hard for light be present, even if the full moon is out. That means it's possible for the time of day to affect which element is stronger and weaker between the two." He confirmed.

**[Date A Live II: Hurricane]**

"Then I'll have to focus on fighting defensively if I want to have any chance of winning this battle." She realized.

She took to the skies again, and held out her finger, blasting a trio of dark orbs at Origami's floating form. Unfortunately, Metatron reacted by shifting some of its pillars into a shield in the shape of an asterisk.

"Fine then, take this!" Tohka shouted.

Rushing towards Origami, she raised Sandalphon behind her head and prepared to swing it down...

*"FLASH!"*

However, she gasped as Origami's body split apart into small photon spheres that reformed into her body behind her, right as Metatron began shifting its forms again.

**"Mal'akh!"**

Her Angel now took the form of wings on her back, which she followed by shifting her position.

*"SLICE!"*

Tohka's eyes widened as she coughed out blood, feeling Origami speeding right past her as her hands formed something like light claws or daggers that cut right past her usual barrier, and right into her stomach.

Because they were both Spirits, her Astral Dress wasn't as effective in protecting her as it was against a Nibelcole's attacks, and she was sent flying into the ground.

"Tohka!" Shinji shouted in worry.

Once she hit the ground, Metatron began to switch to its next formation.

"I can't take another hit like that... so, I better step things up!" Tohka stated.

**"Ratelibish!"**

She stomped the ground with her left foot, causing the darkness that made her shadow to release a dark cloud as her throne rose from it.

*"SHATTER!"*

At that moment, Shinji saw her destroy it with her Angel, sending its broken fragments flying before they merged with her Astral Dress to create thicker armor that covered of her body than before.

**"Kadour!"**

Tohka's timing for equipping it was perfect, as Metatron did the unexpected by having all of its pillars _stop_ moving in formation, making all of them fire beams of light at her without any set position or timing.

She summoned her barrier, which shattered after being shot about 5 times, but her stronger armor caused the damage to only push her back. Despite that, Tohka looked at her Ratelibish armor, and noticed that it was starting to crack in a few spots that she realized were slowly spreading.

"I need to be able to hit her before it's too late, but how can I-" She asked herself.

Her eyes widened as she recalled how she dodged her earlier slash, which seemed like teleportation until she looked behind her.

'Of course! If I can time it right, then maybe...' Tohka smirked.

She rushed at Origami, and swung Sandalphon at her again, which repeated the earlier _teleport dodge_ as Tohka decided to call it. However, this time? She followed it by flying at where she was reforming and threw her fist out to deal her a strong right hook.

Shinji smiled as she finally dealt a hit. Unfortunately, that smile was short lived when the white cover that had hid her appearance was shattered like glass, and revealed their identity.

"No way, it can't be..." He gasped, feeling his eyes widen.

Tohka paused as she got a look at her fellow Spirit's form for the first time, who took a moment to regain the wind that was just knocked out of her.

**[Insert Song Paused]**

It was a girl with long white hair and blue eyes, which were currently nothing but two pools of faded blue without pupils, which were currently in some kind of trance. A trait that Tohka wasn't that surprised about after what she learned in her recent dream.

Her attire, the Astral Dress known by the name of _Ehyeh_ , was not unlike a wedding dress in appearance.

The tips of her side bangs had clip-ons resembling butterflies of a faded light yellow color and there was a translucent white veil resting on the top-middle of her head, which flowed behind her to just a bit above the tips of her head, plus a white bow with a gem attached to her neck. Additionally, she had gold extensions attached to both her hips and the white elbow length gloves that she wore on her forearms.

Her skirt was made of solid light, though hers was white to Tohka's pink, that split into what looked to be between six to eight folds, which were protected by edges that folded together like flower petals with golden tips. Finishing off her attire were white wedding stockings, which attached to boots that looked like white and gold versions of Tohka's, albeit with a softer and more rounded look to reflect their elements being direct opposites.

"So, this is what you truly look like. I just wish your Angel wasn't controlling you, since if it wasn't..." Tohka stated, closing her eyes in regret.

She stomped the ground with her right foot.

**[Insert Song Resume]**

This returned her Astral Dress to normal as the shards broke off and merged with Sandalphon, transforming her Angel into a sword that was at least twice her height.

A black orb formed at the end, which quickly grew larger until it transformed into a vortex, or at least a small equivalent to a black hole. This in turn caused Origami's eyes to widen before her pillars took the form of what Tohka assumed was either a bazooka or a cannon.

"Shinji, move!" Tohka ordered.

Despite the shock from seeing Origami as the true identity of the white being, and the many questions he had to ask about it? Shinji listened and began running far from the current area the two were in.

However, he failed to notice the glow from three red lights as he passed by a certain group of trees.

"Prepare yourself!" Tohka announced.

Both Tohka and Origami's auras began to flare out, signifying they were about to use their Angels' strongest forms/attacks against one another.

**"Sandalphon: Halvanhelev!"**

**"Metatron: Artelif!"**

Right as each of them were about to fire said ultimate attacks, a horrible scream was released from Shinji's throat, making the two stop.

**[Insert Song End]**

Tohka turned to find him, and gasped at the horrible sight of his body lying on the ground, which was completely covered in slash wounds and blood. Even worse, he was surrounded by a series of three humanoid machines.

Each of them had a heavy resemblance to felines, specifically Jaguars, with a single red orb acting as their eyes, and sharp claws that were stained red with Shinji's blood.

"Shinji?" Tohka said in shock.

Witnessing the same sight, Metatron ceased its attack, right before Tohka let out an ear-splitting scream.

*"SLASH!"*

Before any of the Bandersnatch had time to react, they were cut into shreds by a single strike of Halvanhelev's form, which quickly disappeared as Tohka rushed to Shinji's side. Origami stared for a moment before she disappeared without a trace.

Without her presence, the strange barrier realm her Angel created disappeared as quickly as it came. However, that did nothing for Shinji's wounds... and that was when Tohka realized a horrible truth.

"You can't heal yourself, can you?" Tohka said, feeling her eyes shake.

Shinji had told her about how she never saw a Human before today because of how the only way they could protect themselves from Spacequakes was by hiding in special shelters within the city, and they staying in inside until the threat passed and they reversed the damage.

That alone had told her Humans were frail and weak when compared to a Spirit and a Nibelcole, but only now did she see _how_ weak they were.

"Tohka..."

She felt her eyes widen as she let out a silent gasp, seeing Shinji look at her with an apologetic look on his face.

"My sister, please... tell her I'm sorry that... I have to leave her as well." He requested, shedding tears as if it were his last.

He then collapsed face first as the blood loss finally got to him, making Tohka gasp.

"Shinji, no!" She screamed.

She immediately shook her head in denial, not wanting to accept the reality before her.

This boy had first questioned why she thought he and Mana would try to kill her, and despite how she first met him? Still helped her and treated her like a normal girl.

For once in her life, she didn't have an enemy, but something else. She had a...

"No, don't talk like that! I won't let you die!" Tohka shouted as she grabbed his shoulders.

She attempted to have her powers heal him by making contact, but after waiting a few seconds... nothing.

"I won't give up on you!" She continued shouting.

* * *

Mana stared at her friends in disbelief, with all four of them feeling a sweat drop go down their left cheeks at the nervous feeling her staring gave them.

"Ok, let me see if I heard this correctly. I saw my brother walk by in a way that caused me to do a spit take, which covered the whole window, and during all of that... all four of you had somehow blanked out and saw none of it!?" Mana questioned, slightly irked.

"Eh..." Kotori replied.

"That's kind of, well... Yoshino, you tell her." Natsumi begged.

"Huh!?" Yoshino exclaimed in surprise.

"I make no excuses, and will confirm I did not." Mukuro apologized.

Mana slammed her head against the table in disbelief.

"Forget it, Mukuro's reply tells me everything." She stated.

Kotori, Natsumi, and Yoshino lowered their heads in shame.

Right as Mukuro tried to say something else, a sudden chime was heard from Mana's phone that signaled she just got a text.

"Hmm?" She blinked, looking at it.

She went to take a sip of water, only for her to drop the cup on the table and spill it before it ever got anywhere near her mouth.

Her friends all stared at her with worry as they saw her eyes go wide.

"Mana?" Kotori asked.

"Kotori, pay for my part of the bill and I'll pay you back later! I've gotta go!" She replied.

Mana ran off immediately after she said that, leaving all four of them to look at her in surprise.

"Something bad happened... didn't it?" Natsumi asked.

"Normally, I'd be angry at you for saying that. Except this time... I think you might be right." Kotori answered, showing a worried look on her face.

As she ran out of the diner, the text on Mana's phone was revealed, showing a message with no contact or number that said the following five words:

"Come quick, Shinji needs help!"

Kotori saw her run outside, and immediately stood up and looked at her friends.

"Come on, let's follow her!" She decided.

"Right now? But we haven't paid-" Yoshino asked, starting to panic.

Without even asking, she took $5 from her friends' wallets and then placed them and a $10 on the table, along with a note saying the staff could keep the change.

"Yes we have, now get your asses up!" Kotori shouted.

Everyone flinched at the intensity that burned in her eyes, and stood up without question.

* * *

Tapping their phone in hopes it would fix the lost feed, Black Crow scratched their head in confusion.

"Why did the feed suddenly go off? It doesn't make any sense for it to go off like-"

At that moment, the feed came back on as a result of Origami's barrier realm fading away. There was still some static, but it was starting to disappear.

"It... came back?" They asked.

"It seems there was a form of artificial interference disrupting the signal. Perhaps the Spirit's Reiryoku was at work?" Westcott suggested, sounding more interested than before.

The sight of Tohka trying to help Shinji heal and the scraps of the Bandersnatch quickly appeared once the feed was fully restored.

"Ouch, seems like this Spirit couldn't take care of them fast enough if they injured Shinji that easily." Black Crow remarked.

Westcott sighed, feeling this meant the Spirit was too weak for his plans.

'The only bright side was I got to see someone die, so it wasn't a total waste.' He thought.

Tohka closed her eyes as her tears fell on Shinji's face, which was starting to get cold.

"Someone, anyone... save Shinji, I beg of you! I don't care who, I don't care what, but... please, spare his life! He's my... he's my..." Tohka begged.

At that moment, the word she didn't know of? It came to her as if she always knew it.

"My friend!"

At that moment, she felt a hand on her shoulder, making her turn to see something neither Black Crow nor Westcott could.

**[Date A Live: Opening - Piano Version]**

Tohka's eyes widened as she recognized the person besides her, or rather... the veil that hid her appearance!

"P-Phantom?" She said in disbelief.

She rubbed her eyes, making sure Phantom was really there.

She was.

"How are you here? I thought that was-" Tohka questioned.

"It was no dream Tohka, and I'm sorry in advance." Phantom reassured her, soon making an apologetic motion.

Tohka's was confused, until Phantom sunk into her body, making her freeze up before her hair turned silvery-white and her eyes turned blue.

Westcott felt his eyes widen in disbelief as he saw this, recognizing that pair of colors.

"Thank you Tohka. Because you didn't give up, I can save him." Phantom smiles.

Phantom put her hand on Shinji, feeling her eyes get a little misty as she did.

"Like I told you, Shin... I won't make that mistake again." She stated.

With those words, Reiryoku surged through Shinji's body, and his wounds healed as the blood he lost flowed back into his body.

'Oh... my... god!' Westcott though, feeling his eyes shake.

Shinji soon felt his eyes open, still feeling the blood loss affecting his senses a little. As he looked up, where one would have seen Tohka's current appearance, he saw something else. It was an entirely different girl, giving him the same teary smile on Tohka's face.

Where he thought Tohka looked like a beautiful girl, in a non-romantic way, she looked like an _impossibly beautiful girl_. She had long, silvery-white hair that reached down to her waist and had one long strand that fell between her eyes, which were as blue as sapphires. Even more stunning is while she was around the same age as Tohka? She had a figure most grown woman would kill for; despite she was only a few centimeters taller.

'This girl... she feels so familiar.' He thought.

Her attire consisted of a strapless pink dress shirt with a light blue, short-sleeved hoodie jacket, with the pockets having tied strings similar to a blue string tying her hair that tied it near the bottom of her of her waist length hair, tan plaid shorts, and a pair of sneakers with white socks.

As Shinji felt his eyes close before falling asleep, the girl gently rubbed his head before kissing it, feeling more tears leave her eyes.

"Please wait... just a little while longer." She requested.

Watching from the live camera feed, Westcott felt a mixture of excitement at the current colors that Tohka's hair and eyes were, but also rage as everything became clear to him.

'I knew it... your name and appearance weren't a coincidence. It really is you!' He realized.

The image on his tablet popped into view from his grip, showing an image of Shinji, though his grip moved it away before any of the important information on it could be read by anyone that might try to spy on said details.

**[Insert Song End]**

Once she finished healing Shinji, Phantom moved him onto his back and laid his head on Tohka's lap.

"Thank you for lending me your body Tohka, and now? I give you what you've earned." She whispered.

Tohka's hair and eyes went back to normal as she left her body... causing her to gasp as a strong spark surged through the young Spirit's mind. Heavy static filled it as she saw images flood in like a wave crashing down into the ocean.

However, despite the images coming in all at once and leaving her unable to register a majority of them?

'Wait, is... is that-' She realized.

As the end of the image flood, she saw an image of Shinji and Mana as children, alongside an image of the same girl Shinji had just seen... which her mind recognized as what Phantom actually looked like!

'Are these...?' Tohka thought, feeling her eyes shaking.

Because of all the fuzz from all her restored memories, Tohka didn't understand why or how she had memories of them. However, that didn't change the fact she did, and now that she knew? She looked at Shinji with tears in her eyes.

"Shinji..." She cried, making said tears start to spill out as she started to cry.

She lowered her forehead onto Shinji's, quietly continuing to shed her tears.

* * *

As they headed home, the Yamai twins were seen side by side on Kaguya's roller blades and Yuzuru's bike, with the former shown to be deep in thought as her attention was divided between what was in front of her and the sky.

"Kaguya, you really need to pay attention right now, or you'll have a repeat of this morning." Yuzuru warned.

"I know. It's just ever since the Spacequake, I can't shake this feeling that there's something important we forgot, be it just a general thought or something we had to do. My brain won't leave it alone." She replied with annoyance.

"You've never been able to let anything go, so why is this any different?" Yuzuru said before letting out a sigh.

Her younger twin nodded at that.

"Yeah, that's... hey, wait a minute!" Kaguya exclaimed, realizing what she said.

Right as they were about to make a certain turn? The duo suddenly noticed a plume of smoke from the forest, catching their attention as everyone else either ignored it or somehow didn't see it.

"Is that the start of a fire?" She asked.

"I'm uncertain, but since no one else has apparently noticed, we should take a look." Yuzuru suggested.

Kaguya nodded before she and Yuzuru began riding towards it.

* * *

Running from the area to make sure they wouldn't be caught or spotted by anyone and traced back to DEM as a spy, Black Crow started running away from the scene with all their speed.

"Sir, I have to confess that I have no idea what was going on back there. What should I do next?" They inquired.

"Evacuate to the special shelter. After what I just saw, it's clear what I need to do, and that's..." Westcott answered.

Hearing his orders, Black Crow felt their eyes widen.

"Are you serious? Not that I'm questioning you, but was the event we just witnessed actually at that threshold?" Black Crow inquired.

Westcott didn't respond, but he _did_ flash a wicked smile that said enough for them to understand.

"It really is. I'll head over ASAP, so feel free to do whatever right now if you want to." They replied.

They cut the feed and pushed all of their adrenaline into their legs, with the scene switching to Westcott's side as he pulled up a set of blueprints on his tablet. Once that was done, he placed his hands a certain way to bring up a launch code.

"Humpty Dumpty Units 1 to 3, prepare to drop the _God Killer_ onto Tenguu City, with the primary goal of..." He ordered.

He smirked.

"Full annihilation and complete devastation."

At that moment, the scene moved into space, where a trio of satellites was seen before they began to release a series of parts that broke off and began to descend towards Japan, which then began to link and shift in a few places.

* * *

Walking home from Rindouji, the trio of Kurumi, Miku, and Nia were seen together. Nia was currently scratching her head as she tried to remember the recent idea she had during the time they spent in their Spacequake shelter.

"Damn it! What was that idea of mine? Brain, remember it already!" She demanded, grabbing a chunk of her hair in frustration.

"It isn't going to come back if you try forcing it out. Sometimes, you have to just let it come back on its own." Kurumi advised.

"Easy for you to say, you don't write a manga!" Nia countered.

Kurumi sighed and shook her head, not even trying to think of a comeback.

"Excuse me?"

The trio stopped as a young girl stood before Miku, shyly looking away somewhat before pointing to her mother, who was holding her phone out like a camera.

"P-Picture?" She asked.

"Why of course." Miku smiled.

The girl shouted in excitement, soon moving by Miku as they posed for a picture. However, the mother forgot to turn off the flash, causing Nia to shout as the flash flared through her eyes.

*"SHATTER!"*

She didn't say anything about losing another pair of glasses, focusing on rubbing the sting out of her eyes.

"Kurumi, grab one of my remaining spares, will you?" She asked.

"Guess I have to." She replied.

She reached into Nia's pocket, but accidentally knocked two of the remaining three pairs out by mistake.

"*SHATTER! CRACK!"*

Nia paused at that sound, while Kurumi paled a little.

"Kurumi... how many did you break?" Nia asked with an irritated tone.

"All but one of them?" Kurumi nervously answered.

Nia glared her sharpened eyes at Kurumi, swiping her now sole pair of spare glasses from her hands. However, before putting them on, she noticed something in her vision.

"What the?" She blinked.

Nia put them on, only to see what she noticed disappear, then reappear after taking them off again.

"I must need a new pair, because I swear there's something invisible in the sky whenever I'm _not_ wearing them." Nia remarked, placing them back down.

Except this time? What she saw didn't disappear, with Miku and Kurumi seeing it was well.

"That's... not an invisible object you're seeing." Miku realized.

"Wait, did I see something using a cloaking device because of the flash hitting my eyes?" Nia questioned, briefly rubbing her eyes to be certain.

Once she stopped, Nia could no longer deny the incoming object was real... and heading towards the city!

"Hold on, is it coming towards us?" She asked.

Kurumi felt a strange urge pull at her, and immediately ran towards the area the object was falling towards.

"Kurumi!?" Miku called out in surprise.

She soon followed, making Nia's eyes widen.

"Both of you? Oh, damn it all!" She replied.

That was enough to make her follow them, and right as they did? A disoriented Origami suddenly stumbled into view, noticing them all running towards the park.

"Huh? What is... and why am I?" Origami asked herself.

Scratching her head, Origami began heading the park she had unknowingly been teleported from only 5 minutes ago.

* * *

Feeling his senses slowly return to him, Shinji struggled to open his eyes as he saw Tohka looking at him with a smile.

"T-Tohka?" He asked, surprised at the sight.

"You woke up. You're really alive, oh... thank goodness you're still alive." She cried.

He blinked a few times before remembering what happened, then looking at his hand.

To his surprise, he was completely uninjured.

"How am I... Tohka, did you heal me?" Shinji asked, not remembering the girl he saw.

"I think so. I don't know how I did it, but I was able to save you in time. You don't know how badly it scared me to think that I could lose the first friend I've ever had." Tohka answered, as it was technically her that healed him via Phantom borrowing her body.

She wiped her tears away.

"Shinji, never do that again, OK? Because you're not allowed to die!" Tohka demanded, staring at her with half sad and half angry eyes.

The look on Tohka's face pained him, as he felt like it wasn't the first time he saw such a face.

"I promise." He agreed, putting his hand on hers.

Tohka took a deep breath and smiled at him again.

However, their moment was quickly ruined as she felt her instincts flare up, making her look around as she looked for a sign of danger.

"Tohka?" Shinji asked in confusion.

"Something's wrong... I feel a dreadful power coming towards us. The only problem is I can't tell where it's coming from." She answered.

Suddenly, a shadow came over the city, making the two look up as the incoming threat neared itself.

Their reaction to it was one the entire city shared as a giant black orb of metal landed only feet away from them, causing a strong gust that knocked them over. Shortly after it hit the ground, red lights flashed across its body as it began to activate, then transform into something else.

"Oh, my god..." Shinji breathed.

In only a few seconds, the orb became a machine with six arms, six legs, and six horns that resembled a mechanical interpretation of the Devil himself.

"Shinji, what is this thing?" Tohka asked.

"I... don't know." He reluctantly answered.

The machine let out a powerful roar, causing nearly everyone in the city to cover their ears from how loud the noise was. The worst part of it was that the moment this roar was heard, a familiar alarm went off, shocking the people who noticed it while the roar was ongoing.

**"WARNING! YOUR ATTENTION PLEASE, THIS IS NOT A DRILL! THERE HAVE BEEN PRECURSORY SIGNS OF AN IMPENDING SPACEQUAKE IN THE CITY! PLEASE EVACUATE TO-"**

Unfortunately, the alarm's recording, along with all the electronic devices in the city began to shut off. As it wasn't by means of an EMP, even things with protection against it shut down.

It was as if this machine's presence outright cut off the flow of power and electricity, stealing it to both strengthen itself and cripple all of Tenguu City.

"Huh?" Mana blinked, seeing her phone turn off.

As its roar ended, the machine's single red eye lowered a focused area of light that acted as its pupil towards Shinji and Tohka.

The former noticed this and met with its gaze, standing his ground without fear.

"Putting the question of how you're even here aside for now, it's quite interesting to meet you face to face once again... Shinji Takamiya." Westcott stated, speaking through the currently unnamed machine.

"Wait a second, that voice..." Shinji stated, recognizing it.

Thinking back to a public broadcast from a few years ago, he recognized it belonged to the man who ran DEM Industries.

"Hold on. You're Isaac Westcott, the man who runs DEM Industries!" He confirmed.

However, right after saying that? Another thought suddenly hit him.

"Wait a second... do you know who I am!?" Shinji questioned.

"Hmm? Strange, did you actually just ask me who I was? That doesn't make any-" He pondered, staring at Shinji's form.

His words faltered as Shinji's appearance suddenly made sense to him, causing a loud laugh to echo out of the machine.

"Of course, now it makes sense!" Westcott realized.

"Huh?" Shinji blinked, understandably confused at the situation.

The laughter soon stopped.

"It seems you don't remember, which means even if your little sister's here... she likely doesn't remember anything either. How lucky for me that _she_ didn't tell you anything." Westcott stated, but more to himself than Shinji.

That confused Shinji a little, but when he heard that response again and remembered what Origami told him earlier today...

"You... you really are connected to my parents' deaths, aren't you!?" He realized, glaring at the man with hate and anger.

"Oh? It seems that you remember a little, or rather, I helped you remember. If that's the case, then my timing for unleashing the Diabolus on the city was perfect. I'll have to kill you and everyone here so my plans for this world can't be resisted by you or those traitors!" Westcott decided.

The machine, now known as the Diabolus, reacted to his words by charging beams from all of the glowing red areas on its body, making Shinji's eyes widen in surprise.

"I hope you enjoy being the first casualty!" He declared.

All of the beams fired at the duo, right as Mana ran into the area and unknowingly walked into the crossfire.

"Big brother!" Mana screamed.

Hearing his sister's voice behind him, Shinji immediately rushed to Mana and held her close.

"Get away from my friends!" Tohka shouted angrily.

She rushed in front of the two and immediately forming her barrier. Despite the machine's overwhelming power, and the pressure she felt pressing against her... she managed to completely block the attack!

"What!?" Westcott shouted, his eyes shaking at from Tohka's successful defense.

Mana stared at Tohka in shock, remembering how she was ready to attack them when they first met her.

"Shinji, did she just-" She tried to ask.

"Tohka is on our side now, so there's no need to worry." He reassured her.

Westcott monitored the sight, and then looked at how fast the Diabolus was charging from his side. A smirk soon formed as he decided his next move by pressing a certain button.

"So, you dodged my main machine's initial attack, but let's see how your powers hold against an army of machines!" He announced.

Slots opened on the Diabolus' body, which fired out the standby forms of an army of Bandersnatch, and Shinji held Mana close as he recalled what they had done to him.

"Careful Mana, those things nearly killed me." He warned.

Mana gasped, suddenly looking at the equally cautious Tohka.

'Did she somehow send me that message?' She wondered.

"My main soldiers and the original units of my artificial wizard series, the Bandersnatch..." Westcott began.

Next came a series of robots who began to float in the air and were more feminine compared to the androgynous Bandersnatch robots, resembling human women wearing dresses.

"Their sisters, the Alice units..."

Next were units that resembled smaller versions of the Bandersnatch, only based on normal cats. This was evident from their tails, cat ears, and their claws that couldn't grab objects like the Bandersnatch's claws, which resembled hands.

"The sneaky Cheshire Cats..."

Finally, the slots closed before bigger ones opened and reveal giant standby form orbs that transformed into a few dragon-like Bandersnatch with wings, a clearly masculine form, a tail, and their sizes being as different as the sizes between a Human and an Elephant standing on its hind legs and its trunk stretched out.

"And their brothers, the living tanks known as the Jabberwocky!" Westcott finished.

Tohka's sweated as she saw the army standing before her, holding tightly onto Sandalphon's hilt.

"OK, so maybe you have a big army, but... I'm still feeling good about my chances." She stated.

"Wait a second. I have enough here to fill all the kinds of pieces of a Chessboard, except for that of the Pawns." Westcott noticed.

Tohka paled, having a strong feeling that he still had another set of automatons inside the Diabolus.

"Ah, of course. I often forgot they aren't machines like the rest of my army is." He remembered.

The Diabolus opened a compartment on its chest that revealed...

"No..." Tohka breathed, shaking in fear.

Mana shook as she saw the forms of multiple Nibelcole escape from the ship, and Shinji stared at the monsters that hunted Tohka for the first time.

"Those are the Nibelcole?" He inquired.

"The what now?" Mana fearfully asked.

"Short answer? What made Tohka think we were going to kill her when we first met her." Shinji explained.

Mana didn't have to ask any further, already able to tell these things were anything but friendly.

"Yeah, but neither of you need to worry." Tohka reassured them.

Both of them looked at Tohka, who looked at the two with a confident smile.

"For longer than I can remember, I've believed this whole world wanted me dead, but then you showed me how amazing it really is. You showed me that everyone in this world is no different from me. So, this time... it's my turn to help you!" Tohka declared.

"Tohka..." Shinji breathed.

He smiled, as did Mana.

"Go kick those tin cans' sorry asses!" Mana shouted.

Tohka chuckled at her reply.

"Mana, I like that spunk of yours." Tohka replied.

Tohka rushed ahead, prompting the automaton army to do the same, readying their respective ways of combat as she approached them.

Tohka made the first move, slashing through a large amount of Nibelcole, Cheshire Cats and Bandersnatch in one go.

"Wow... she's so strong!" Mana remarked, seeing the machine parts go flying.

The Cheshire Cats who weren't fully destroyed then began to glow, either repairing their damaged bodies using their Realizers or pulling parts from the few who were beyond repair to heal where they now couldn't.

"Careful, the ones who look like cats that didn't get destroyed are repairing themselves!" Shinji warned.

"Say what!?" Tohka shouted.

They then activated a camouflage function to blend with the environment, effectively becoming invisible.

'If they have abilities like that, then I better see what those other two can do. They aren't like the ones who nearly killed Shinji.' She realized.

Holding out her hand, a flurry of dark orbs fired from her palms and flew towards the automaton army. The Alice units responded by generating energy barriers to shield against the barrage.

'Damn it, they have barriers like I do!' She realized, noticing they were protecting the Jabberwocky units.

In response, three of the Jabberwocky began their charge and moved with great speed towards her. She held up Sandalphon as her barrier appeared, and they punched it with great strength.

"Is that all you can-" She taunted, keeping her hold against them.

**"Anti-Territory, activate!"**

Tohka was confused, until some kind of barrier made of magenta hexagons formed around her. It was only a few seconds later that her own barrier shattered, and the magenta barrier vanished.

'No way, it managed to disrupt my Reiryoku!?" She gasped loudly, struggling to defend.

She tried to just use Sandalphon and her strength to block the attacks... only for her to be punched across the field and land by the Takamiya siblings.

"Tohka!" They shouted.

"No need to worry... that didn't hurt as bad as I thought it would." Tohka reassured them.

Getting on her feet and taking a few breaths, she raised Sandalphon into the air as a familiar throne descended from the shadows as night fully fell on Tenguu City, revealing the full moon.

"Besides, he took long enough for the moon to make its grand debut. That will be his last mistake." Tohka smiled.

She thrust her Angel into the throne, breaking it into shards.

Westcott paid attention as her Angel entered its ultimate form, right as she pointed it forward and created a small black hole at the tip.

**"Sandalphon: Halvanhelev!"**

Swinging it forward, the black hole grew in size as its powerful vacuum swallowed up all of the machines and Nibelcole, but avoided sucking in the park's greenery and the Takamiya siblings due to nothing more than Tohka's desire.

Both of them and Westcott looked in shock as one of the Nibelcole hissed at her before it was swallowed.

"How was... that... you bastard?" Tohka asked, all while panting and having a big smile on her face.

"It seems you're quite the dangerous one, and I can admit that I may have been hasty if your remark about the moon is true. However, I'll also say this to you in response..." Westcott answered.

The Diabolus' energy spiked to become double, then triple, or maybe even beyond that!

"I only sent out those robots as a way to see your abilities while buying time for the Diabolus' to charge up its full power." He revealed, grinning as he did.

Tohka grit her teeth and responded by swinging Halvanhelev at the demon-based machine...

*"CLANG!"*

Only to be bounced back, with her Halvanhelev breaking into its original form as her attack was overpowered by the intense flaring of the Diabolus' charged power.

"No way..." She said to herself.

Diabolus let out another roar before it instantly charged another set of lasers, with Tohka realizing what he was about to do.

"SHINJI! MANA!"

She dove at the two and shielded them from the blasts, which began to raze the rest of the city.

Everyone nearing the park was lucky, as the blasts seemed to miss them, but that was it. The rest of Tenguu City was hit hard, and many screams were heard from the many potential casualties.

Among the rubble, only Tamae, Hiroto, and the trio of Ai, Mai, and Mii were immediately shown to be among the possible survivors.

"I... I don't think... I can win..." Tohka weakly said.

She soon collapsed onto her legs, making Shinji and Mana look at her and then the Diabolus' giant form towering over them.

"Why is this happening?" Mana questioned.

"Because it was him..." Shinji answered.

Mana looked at him.

"He didn't actually say it, but his earlier words were all I needed to confirm what he meant. This man... was the one who killed our parents!" He shouted.

She gasped at those words.

"It was him? And you're absolutely certain of this?" She asked, making sure she heard her brother right.

"Yeah, and it sounds like that was only one part of what he did to us." Shinji confirmed, growling slightly.

At that moment, he began to glow.

"Huh?" Westcott blinked in surprise.

"Isaac Westcott... I will never forgive you for what you've done! You won't get away with this!" Shinji screamed.

Tohka gasped as Reiryoku shot out of his body, taking a clear color of sorts. Moments after, Mana gasped as her body felt like it was burning, only to do the same in the same clear color as her older brother's.

"Shinji... Mana..." She breathed.

'No way, that's impossible! How can they use Reiryoku?' Westcott thought, letting the shock and awe freeze him in place.

At that moment, Mana turned her head to see the arrival of Origami, her friends, the Yamai twins, and the Rindouji group.

"Mana, you're OK!" Yoshino smiled.

"You followed me!?" Mana shouted.

Tohka flinched at the sight of Origami, already expecting her Angel to take control of her.

"Have we met before?" Origami inquired, looking at Tohka with confusion.

Tohka blinked in surprise, and then let out an awkward yet relieved laugh.

Shinji's Reiryoku kept flowing, and Mana could only watch her brother as he stood up with confidence.

"I will not let you hurt my family, my friends, or the people living in Tenguu City! I will..." He declared.

He had no idea his voice was echoing throughout the city, letting everyone hear him and somehow see everything through his eyes.

**"Protect all of them!"**

With those words, all of the girls besides Tohka and Mana felt a strong pulse go through their bodies.

* * *

Watching from above Tenguu City, the sight of Phantom could be seen.

"Shin, the time has come... lead everyone to the future. Build the bridge that will let me come back to you." She begged.

She took a deep breath, looking at the battle zone.

**[Date A Live: Opening Theme - Instrumental]**

Right now, she saw despite the many injured, no one had died yet. There was still time to save the people of Tenguu City without any casualties.

"Everyone, the time has come! Lend Shin and Mana your strength!" Phantom exclaimed.

With those words, the same pulse the girls felt only moments ago went off a second and final time.

* * *

Shinji, Mana turned around, joining Tohka as they saw the others' bodies radiating rings of light as each glowed a certain color.

"What is this?" Origami asked.

"It can't be..." Tohka realized.

Her own body did the same as her own aura made the others' flash even brighter.

"Everyone! There are two sets of words you should feel flowing through your heads right now! Trust your instincts and say them!" She shouted.

All of them looked at her in confusion, and yet...

**"Ehyeh!"**

Everyone turned to see Origami had shouted, causing light to swirl around her body and form her Astral Dress.

**"Metatron!"**

The familiar golden pillars descended into view, and after they did... Origami gasped and noticed how much her current outfit resembled Tohka's.

"What is this?" She asked, looking at herself.

"It's the way to save our city!" Mana smiled.

Her friends saw this, and then looked at each other, trusting her words as Kotori went first.

**"Elohim Gibor!"**

Her body was covered in fire, surprising her before it transformed into a white kimono with a black belt and a pair of tan horns wrapped inside her ribbons.

**"Camael!"**

A giant red and black axe, which was taller than she was and emitting strong heat from the inside, formed in her hands. Shaking her Angel slightly to get a feel for its weight, Kotori then gave a toothy grin.

"I don't really get what's going on, but... I like it!" Kotori admitted.

Natsumi looked kind of nervous, but Yoshino took her hand and smiled at her. She sighed and gave up any ideas against doing this as she raised her hand in the air.

**"El!"  
"Adonai Tzabaoth!"**

Yoshino was surrounded by water that soon froze into ice.

It transformed into a short white dress and a large green raincoat that has a tail with a pink ribbon attached to it, a hoodie with a pair of rabbit ears and boots that matched her raincoat.

Natsumi saw sand surround her, which hardened into stone.

It transformed into a white jacket, a purple shirt with star outlines, and a white cape held by orange bow, a white witch hat with light orange rims, small bat wings with light orange tips, a chain made of gold stones and giant emeralds wrapped around the base, a white and black two-layered skirt, and white boots with short black socks with star outlines and a leg black band around her right kneecap.

**"Zadkiel!"  
"Haniel!"**

Natsumi saw a broomstick fall into her hands, one that didn't look too special.

Yoshino noticed her Angel hadn't appeared, which left her and Natsumi confused... that is, until they saw a giant mechanical rabbit with white _skin_ and glowing red eyes rise from underneath her.

Natsumi fell on her butt in shock, fairly certain that she had been just a hair's length away from passing out due to shock.

**"Elohim Tzabaoth!"**

The Yamai twins briefly looked like they were one as wind and lightning surrounded them. It didn't take long for what seemed like a purple dominatrix outfit with chain cuffs forming on their wrists and ankles, paired with two capes that were on their shoulders and waist respectively.

However, the wind and lightning separated as their so-called fused state's feet turned in opposite directions.

Kaguya's variant became a reddish-purple color, with her chains and cuffs only being on the right wrist/ankle, and keeping the cape around their waist. As for Yuzuru's, her variant became a bluish-purple color, with her chains and cuffs only being on the left wrist/ankle, and keeping the cape on her shoulders.

**"Raphael: El Re'em!"**

Lightning drilled around Kaguya's arms and took the form of a giant lance head.

**"Raphael: El Na'ash!"**

Wind spiraled around Yuzuru's arm, taking the form of a long pendulum that resembled a whip.

**"Shaddai El Chai!"**

Miku was covered in sounds waves, making her smile at the melody they briefly made.

The sound soon transformed into a yellow and blue dress with white ruffles covering some parts of it, a yellow moon hair clip around her usual flower clip, both of which were connected to a white flower. She also had a choker on her neck with a white lily attached to it.

**"Gabriel!"**

A floating, translucent keyboard of an indigo color formed in front of Miku's hands.

**"Elohim!"**

Kurumi was wrapped in dark red energy that soon became black, making her feel like she was both being sped up and slowed down. It transformed into a Gothic Lolita outfit of crimson and black frills, with her low twin tails now being held by small bows of the same colors, and a red and black choker.

**"Zafkiel!"**

A pair of guns appeared in her hands, one being a flintlock pistol and the other a musket. While she held them, her normally hidden left eye was briefly shown to see it had temporarily turned gold and had a clock inside of it.

**"Yod!"**

Nia felt energy flow out of her forehead and wrap around her body.

It transformed into an ink-colored, translucent fabric that completely displayed her figure. The collar of her dress took on the shape of a pen tip, with the middle part being patterned like a manga panel, and long black laced boots and a black veil that was attached to a pen and a feather duster. There was also a golden cross-connected to a beaded rope, surrounding the waist of the dress.

**"Raziel!"**

She held out her hand as a brown tome, with silver bindings and a silver emblem in the middle of the front and back, fell into her hands.

**"Eloah!"**

Mukuro felt energy squeeze and expand against her, making her feel gravity fluctuate where she stood.

It transformed into a lilac and white Qipao, with its ends being adorned with constellation patterns, and were divided at the edge. Additionally, she had transparent purple gloves that were also engraved with constellation patterns. Finally, she had what looked like metallic greaves in the form of shoes, along with dark blue and purple hair extensions which resembled bunny ears.

**"Michael!"**

She held her hands out to grab a staff that was shaped like a giant key, equal in size to the average sword.

"T-This is..." Westcott breathed.

He felt a smile form on his face.

**[Insert Song End]**

The sight of Spirits standing before him? It filled him with nothing but awe, a reaction he shared with those among Tenguu City's people who were able to feel it despite being unable to see it.

"This is... why do we have these powers?" Mukuro inquired, looking at Michael.

"I don't know, but right now? This entire city and its people are depending on us and these powers to save them." Shinji answered.

Mana nodded and pulled out her shinai.

"But... how do we know what to-" Nia asked.

Raziel flashed at that moment, getting her attention as she heard something.

"Nia?" Kurumi asked in concern.

"Raziel... I think it just talked to me!" She replied, looking at it in shock.

That caught everyone's attention.

"Just listen to your Angels, and they will protect you alongside your Astral Dresses, but you have to trust them first." Tohka explained.

At that moment, everyone closed their eyes, which was when Westcott took his chance.

"This is the perfect chance for me to test how close I am to perfecting our ultimate weapon! Now, prepare to fall to the Diabolus' power!" He shouted.

Diabolus prepared to fire its mass laser attack once again, prompting Origami to gasp.

**"Metatron: Artelif!"**

The pillars moved to become a cannon, with her aura flaring as it shot a huge beam of light that was able to cancel out the Diabolus' laser.

"Even with this much power built up?" Westcott shouted.

**[My Hero Academia: United States of Smash]**

"Whoa..." Origami breathed.

Her fellow Spirits all stared at she managed to do, with shock almost stuck on their faces, yet awe at what their own powers were fully capable of. The exception to this was Tohka, who was left speechless at seeing Metatron having unleashed its ultimate form.

"So, this is what we're capable of? If that's the case..." Nia asked before looking at Raziel.

She opened it and closed her eyes.

"Please, I beg of you. Tell us how we can beat this thing?" She asked.

Her Angel immediately responded, which she quickly noticed as a silvery glow wrote the black text inside.

"Everyone, I have a plan!" She shouted.

She ripped a page off Raziel, which was replaced almost immediately afterwards, and tossed it to Shinji.

"Mukuro, Kurumi, Natsumi, Origami, Miku, and I will go help everyone in the city! You fight this bucket of bolts using the instructions on that page!" Nia continued.

Shinji looked at it and nodded, turning to those she didn't call for.

"This isn't an enemy we can just overpower. We have to work together, and as such, I only have question to ask all of you..." He stated.

He took a deep breath before continuing, giving them a smile full of hope.

"Are all of you ready for this?" Shinji asked.

Tohka, Origami, Kotori, Yoshino, Kaguya, and Yuzuru all looked at him with confident smiles.

"Then let's do this!" He announced.

Shinji and Mana watched as their group flew towards the Diabolus, while Nia's led the others to start rescuing the people of Tenguu City.

"How cute, you actually think you can win." Westcott smirked.

The Diabolus finally moved from its landing spot as part of its backside spread out to create wings of sorts, propelling itself with rocket boosters hidden under the revealed compartments on its back.

"Then let me give you a wakeup call to reality." He challenged.

"If anyone has to wake up, it will be you!" Shinji responded.

His and Mana's Reiryoku auras flared out with those words, which caused the approaching Diabolus and Spirits to freeze in place like a painting.

On this day? History would be made.

* * *

**I'll admit it right now, every chapter in this first arc until the last one is a cliffhanger.**

**Who knew that a fight between Tohka and Origami would cause such a chain of events that would lead to what can be best described as boss fight between the DEM and Asgard Electronics/Ratatoskr? And that's when you ignore that none of our heroes have actually joined with the organization as of this point in the story.**

**Then we have to ask what Phantom's planning. It doesn't seem to be anything bad, seeing as she saved Shinji and restored Tohka's memories, but still...**

**Anyways, to everyone who was wondering how the Spirits would appear since the events of the first chapter? This is your answer. I was always wondering how the story of Date A Live would have changed if, instead of showing up one at a time, were already on Ratatoskr and Shido's side by the end of V1.**

**Had a few certain events in canon changed? I think this could have been what happened.**

**Now that all of the Spirits have awakened thanks to Shinji awakening his Reiryoku, and gathered by his side to save Tenguu City before the Diabolus is able to destroy it... we're about to see how the story of Date A Live will go when the events of V2 and beyond change from having all 10 of the Sephira Spirits to influence what happens.**

**Until next time everyone, and stay awesome! ^^**


	4. Chapter 4

**And here we are with Part 2!**

**The first half of this double update revealed quite a lot, including a surprise that a few veteran readers of DARL might have recognized, and this chapter is no different. Also, to anyone who feels last chapter may have been a tad fast? That was intentional, because the events of V1 have always felt fast in my eyes as a result of how everything seemed to happen with Shido's date with Tohka, and how the story needed to get to this point to really progress.**

**Now, for two things I'd like to mention before we begin?**

**At the beginning of the story, I mentioned that me and kingpariah would consider having Mana be the story's deuteragonist, and after heavy thought and people who liked the idea... we're happy to say that it's now official! When it comes to who the Tritagonist should be? I'll have more to say about that at the start of the next chapter, as it will come up then.**

**For the second thing? That's fairly minor, since it's just that me and kingpariah decided on a theme song for the story, as we thought it might be fun. Our choice is "I Swear" from Season 3, as the lyrics perfectly fit the story's overall theme.**

**So, with all of that said? I hope you enjoy how this all ends and the reveals it brings!**

* * *

**[Chapter 4 - From Zero to Ten, Part 2]**

Flying through the sky, the group of Nia, Miku, Origami, Natsumi, Kurumi, and Mukuro could be seen as they flew towards the main area of Tenguu City... and it wasn't pretty.

Everything was a complete wreck, and from their current height? They couldn't see anyone among the rubble.

"OK, I know I'm usually a downer? But even this is beyond what my mind can accept or think of!" Natsumi remarked, shaking a little.

"Which is why we're here to save as many as we can, ideally everyone if we aren't too late." Nia replied as she focused on looking ahead.

During their flight, the trio of Ai, Mai, and Mii soon came into their view as they tried to help Tamae out of a what looked to be a mound she was barely hanging onto. Because of said mound's height, there was a chance she might actually fall a good distance onto debris she couldn't see underneath her.

"Don't worry Ms. Okamine, we'll get you out of there!" Ai grunted.

"Heave..." Mai started.

"And ho!" Mii finished.

They pulled strongly, only for Tamae to suddenly slip and nearly pull all three of them with her.

"Crap!" The trio shouted, nearly at the same time.

However, as they struggled to avoid letting go off their teacher and falling with her...

*"BANG!"*

One of the broken buildings lost a huge chunk of its structure, making it fall towards the trio as they all looked up to notice it.

"Let me go! If you don't, we'll all die!" Tamae begged.

"No, we can't leave you!" Mai shouted.

Seeing the danger, Origami felt her eyes shrink before Metatron released a faint glow, recognizing what her intent was. With a sudden burst of speed, she charged ahead.

**"Mal'akh!"**

Her pillars took the form of wings and sped her towards the danger, forming some light claws on her right hand before reeling it back.

She then swung down, treating her hand like it had wolf claws.

*"SLICE!"*

The trio and Tamae stared at the sight of Origami cutting the chunk into pieces. Right after cutting it, Origami grabbed her Angel and threw it just above them, making it spin into its shield formation as it defended them from the remaining pieces that were still falling.

"Holy crap! She's amazing!" Mukuro praised.

"She knew what to do before I even suggested a plan... that girl's gotta be some kind of super genius or something." Nia replied, nodding in agreement.

Origami soon landed by the group.

"Origami? Is it really you!?" Ai asked.

"Yeah, but we'll talk about that later. For right now? Let me help you save our teacher, so apologies in advance." She confirmed.

The trio had no time to reply as Origami grabbed Mii by her arm and pulled, causing all four of them to fall onto the ground as Tamae was finally pulled out of her rocky prison.

"Quick, where are the nearest injured civilians and the nearest trapped civilians? Also, are there any casualties that you've seen and/or heard if?" Nia inquired.

"Well, from what I can remember seeing? There were some trapped people from the area behind us, and some injured people up ahead we were about to join after rescuing our teacher." Mai recalled.

"Alright, then here's the game plan." Nia replied.

She put her hand over Raziel's pages before ripping a few of them out. After quickly skimming over their details...

"These papers should help give you a general idea of your powers that we need in this situation." She stated.

Everyone was given a single page, then read what was on them.

"Origami, spare as many of Metatron's pillars as you can while flying overhead to mark areas with either injured or trapped civilians, while guiding others to shelter we'll set up for them." Nia asked.

She then thought for a moment.

"Although, it would help if we could somehow tell them apart to know who should go where." She remarked.

"I can make that happen." Origami smiled.

Nia looked surprised, then noticed Origami send a pair of pillars to the locations Mai mentioned. The one by the injured shot straight into the air, while the one with those who were trapped spun to give off a swirling beam.

"Straight for first aid and swirling for rescue efforts, both of which can be seen from ground or sky." She continued.

"Wow, that's brilliant and perfect!" Nia praised.

She then looked at Miku and Natsumi.

"Both of you focus on giving everyone first aid, while Natsumi? I need you to build the shelter that I just mentioned, and you need to avoid thinking about anything bad while doing both." Nia stated.

Natsumi tensed up a bit, prompting Mukuro to put a hand on her shoulder.

"You can do this. Right now, the only thing you should be thinking of is that right now... this is the same thing Yoshino saved _you_ from." She encouraged.

Hearing those words, Natsumi felt her eyes widen as she tightened her grip on Haniel... then nodded her head as she showed a face full of courage, even if it was just a forced one.

"Thanks Mukuro. As for you, I want you to keep an eye on the Diabolus and keep any incoming attacks from reaching us." Nia smiled, continuing her plan's explanation.

"Understood." She replied with a nod.

Nia then looked at Kurumi.

"As for you, Kurumi? You and I will focus on the rescue efforts, namely me doing the heavy work and you getting everyone out/free." She finished.

Kurumi nodded, looking at her Angel.

'And this time, I'll be able to help everyone. I won't be forced to watch because I'm unable to help anymore!' She thought, gripping her two rifles.

Nia looked at the trio and their teacher.

"Hey, young teacher and... uh, Talkative Triad!" Nia shouted.

'Talkative Triad?' The trio repeated in their thoughts, surprised at being called as such.

"Go with Miku and Natsumi, they may need some help at the shelter." She stated.

Despite the weirdness on their side of the situation, Tamae nodded as she gave an awkward laugh.

"Sure, I think we can handle that much." Tamae replied.

Nia smiled and then looked at everyone.

"Alright then, let's go out there save what will be either all of or a majority of Tenguu City's people!" She declared.

Everyone, minus Miku and Kurumi who giggles at her choice of words, stared at her for a moment before they brushed it aside and began spreading out for their rescue efforts.

However optimistic or unrealistic their plan was... what Nia knew is they would at least damn try to achieve such a goal!

* * *

Rewinding the clock a little, the remaining Spirits could be seen as they stood by Shinji and Mana, who were looking at the Diabolus and its gigantic form.

After a few seconds since his aura froze them, the sound of Westcott's laughter could be heard from the Diabolus.

"So, you're saying that I'm the one that's dreaming? Then perhaps I should remind you of the nightmare you're currently living!" Westcott stated.

And with those words, the Diabolus began to generate more power.

Shinji stared at the mechanical monstrosity and simply let out a deep breath...

**[Date A Live III: I Swear]**

Then flashed a confident smile.

"Sounds like you're just denying that _you're_ the one having a nightmare." He answered.

Everyone looked at him in surprise, right as he turned around to look at sister, and his friends both new and old.

"He began this fight with just a single Spirit to fight against, but now there's five of you. As such, let's show this bastard just how badly he underestimated us!" Shinji exclaimed.

Hearing that, Kotori flashed a smirk.

"Oh yeah, time to rip this guy a new one!" Kotori announced as began to heat up.

She gave a loud scream as she charged towards the Diabolus, only for it to immediately fire a beam through her torso. This caused everyone to scream as she fell on the ground with a loud thud.

"No, Kotori!" Yoshino screamed.

"Aw, look at that? I already killed one of your-" Westcott mocked.

Kotori's body soon began to heal itself like Tohka did, but much faster in comparison, surprising even Westcott as everyone saw her stand up... and then noticed her eyes were glowing with a scary red light in them.

"Surprised that I'm alive? If you'd like to change your mind about fighting us and run home to your mommy, then I'm afraid you've lost that chance." Kotori warned.

At that moment, her body was covered in crimson flames which made the Diabolus shake a little.

"Since I'm gonna feed your robot its shiny ass!" She screamed in an excited tone.

Kotori let out a feral scream as she rocketed onto the Diabolus and began swinging her axe against it, ignoring the many shots it fired at her while knocking it left and right.

"Holy crap... d-did she resurrect as a brainless zombie that can only rampage!?" Kaguya asked in a worried tone.

"Or, more realistically, did she hit her head when she crashed?" Yuzuru inquired, similarly worried.

"Uh... no, actually. This is actually in character for her. You see-" Yoshino tried to say.

She winced a bit before she could finish, seeing Kotori swing her Angel in a way that resembled decking someone in the chin.

"Kotori is actually a fireball with a fuse as tiny as a shark's, but she tries to hold it back around those she doesn't know. Westcott has done enough that keeping it under wraps has been completely tossed out of the window." Mana finished.

Tohka and the twins winced as they saw Kotori blast fire inside of the Diabolus, making fire burst out of the gaps between its plating.

"Glad she's on our side..." Tohka remarked, closing her eyes as she felt a sweat drop form on her right cheek.

She then readied Sandalphon, preparing to rejoin the fight.

"Well, let's not wait around and help her out." She stated.

Yoshino and the Yamai twins nodded in agreement. They took flight shortly after, leaving the Takamiya siblings to watch them fight.

"Go for it girls!" Shinji cheered.

"Take that scrap pile down!" Mana demanded.

As they got closer, the Diabolus let out a loud sound as it slapped Kotori and knocked her off balance.

She stared as it prepared to shoot her.

'Ah, shit! I'm wide open!' Kotori thought.

Luckily, it was at that moment when Yuzuru flew in front of her and spun. This caused Raphael El Na'ash to create a small twister, which sent the lasers back at the machine.

*"BOOM!"*

It let out a loud series of beeps as it stumbled back a bit, right as Kaguya shouted.

"Eat this!" She screamed.

Thrusting her Angel forward, a streak of lightning fired off the tip of Raphael El Re'em and hit the machine right in its torso.

*"SPARK!"*

It's entire body spasmed as it sent out a series of warning alarms, marking the errors the lightning had given its systems.

"Have some of this!" Tohka exclaimed.

She swung Sandalphon across its form, causing it to fall onto its back with a loud crash.

Zadkiel then leaped into view and released a cold geyser of water across the machine's form, which instantly turned to ice and froze it in place.

"Yeah! Let's see you get yourself out of that!" Kotori shouted with a smirk.

However, red lights flowed as the Diabolus broke free and began to repair its damage.

"Oh, come on!" She complained.

However, the moment it got up? Tohka noticed one of its lights lost some of its glow as if it were a pie chart made of glass.

"It can only heal so many times!" She shouted.

"Huh?" Everyone said, looking at her.

"One of its lights partially stopped glowing. I bet that's some kind of backup generator that gives it the power to heal." Tohka explained.

"Meaning if we do enough damage, then it should eventually be left a sitting duck." Kotori smirked.

After saying that, the Diabolus moved around using its rocket boosters, now lacking any damage and letting it move at full strength.

"The hard part is this restores it to a prime state, and its armor was already too hard for us to break through." Yuzuru reminded them.

"Then let's buy the others time to save everyone, so we can wallop it with the power of every Spirit!" Kaguya stayed, flashing a confident grin.

Yuzuru smiled at that.

"For once, I believe we agree on our plan of attack." She replied.

"I... I'm still a little nervous about this, but I'll do my best!" Yoshino replied.

Zadkiel let out a loud roar of agreement.

"Alright, then here we go!" Tohka shouted.

The five Spirits rushed ahead, ready to overwhelm the Diabolus until the others could arrive.

* * *

Meanwhile, while they were fighting, the rescue efforts of the other Spirits was picking up.

**[Date A Live III: I Swear - Instrumental]**

This began with Mukuro flying ahead.

**"Rataibu!"**

As some incoming attacks neared the area, causing many people to scream as they expected to get hit, she held out Michael and turned it in front of her and then above her. This caused twin keyholes to briefly form in the air before two spatial portals warped into existence.

The gate in front of her ate the attacks and then spat them into the sky from the one above her, causing everyone who watched to either look in awe or feel hopeful at the sight.

"Stay calm everyone, I won't let any of that monster's attacks get anywhere near us!" Mukuro reassured them.

While she was holding their defenses in the air, Origami was flying around the city, keeping an eye out for any signs of civilians and using some of Metatron's pillars to mark the areas in question, if and when she saw them.

In the areas with swirling light beams, Nia and Kurumi were showing their rescue efforts as they ran into the next one they found. A big pile of rubble was seen as only the sight of moving arms or legs sticking out showed any signs of people inside.

"This one looks bad..." Kurumi realized.

"Yeah, so we better work fast and get them to Natsumi and Miku's station." Nia agreed, holding Raziel out.

Her Angel began to levitate as it opened up and flapped to a certain set of pages.

She let out a shout as she threw out her hands, causing many of them to fly out and attach themselves to pieces of the debris. Nia's hands then gained a gray glow as she lifted them up with some strain.

"Come on gravity, let's zero out for a moment..." She grunted.

The debris in question shook before the papers on them glowed in the same color and spread it across their form, reversing the effects of gravity on them in what manifested as Nia using telekinesis on them.

As they lifted off the people underneath, some of them felt themselves floating a bit from the changed gravity.

"K-Kurumi, do it now! Quickly!" Nia screamed, being overwhelmed by mental strain.

"Right!" She nodded.

She readied her guns as her Clock Eye, which was normally set at 3 O'clock, moved to the IV position.

**"Dalet!"**

Her Angel fired bullets of black energy at the debris, causing all of them to be swallowed in black energy spheres that caused the rocks trapped inside to have their colors invert, now frozen in time.

Nia then released her hold on the debris and panted, leaving Kurumi to flip one of her guns at herself, moved her clock eye's hand to the I position.

**"Aleph!"**

She shot forward like she was a DVD being fast-forwarded, grabbing all of the civilians and moving them out of harm's way before the black spheres around the debris began to vanish, and causing all of it to crash onto the ground.

"Anyone here unable to move on their own, be it anywhere between barely to not at all from the pain?" Nia asked.

A few hands were raised, causing Raziel to release more pages as they attached themselves onto the people who did.

"Then make sure to stay still as we help get you all some medical attention." Kurumi stated.

The duo began taking them towards Miku and Natsumi's station, where a bunch of injured civilians were in serious pain, as the former stabbed Haniel onto the ground. She and Miku watched as the ground morphed itself into something like a makeshift hospital before hardening to what looked like a house made of a large black diamond that lacked any shine to it.

"OK, after doing that we..." Natsumi mumbled, looking at the page on which of her powers she should use.

"Allow me while you figure that out." Miku offered.

The Spirit idol took a deep breath as she stood before the injured.

**"Gabriel: Requiem!"**

Floating pipes appeared around the injured, and then... Miku sang a lovely hum that caused all of them to be enveloped by a glow and relax.

"Is that some kind of natural painkiller?" Natsumi said in surprise, staring at the sight.

"Yeah, but it won't last forever. If there's any time for you to heal them then this is it." Miku replied, looking at her.

Natsumi began to shiver a little, feeling the pressure hit her as she stared at everyone she was expected to save.

She almost felt too afraid to try and risk failing them all, but before she gave up...

_"I may not be able to understand what you went through and endured, but from now on? I'll be by your side."_

A silent gasp left her mouth as she remembered those words. managing to find the strength she needed...

"Go, Haniel!" She shouted.

The sight of a rainbow flew out of her Angel's brush area, flying around and enveloping everyone in a green glow that caused them to be covered by cartoon-like smoke that said _Poof!_ on them.

When it faded, everyone reappeared, with their injures slowly disappearing as if they had never been there to begin with.

"N-No way, did I really..." Natsumi stuttered in surprise.

"Congratulations, you did it!" Miku cheered, hugging her close.

Natsumi felt her face go red as Miku's large chest pillows swallowed up her face, bringing an end to her moment with a good mood from her achievement.

'If this becomes a thing, I'll turn her into a frog!' She thought, feeling her annoyance grow.

A scream soon caught their attention, showing that despite Natsumi had healed everyone, it had only been physically. The person who screamed was shown holding their chest to prove that as the struggled to take large breaths.

"Is he OK?" Miku asked.

"Seems like I can't heal everything, guess that explains this part of Nia's plan." Natsumi realized.

She used Haniel's transformation power at some nearby rock shards, transforming them into medical supplies.

"To anyone who can move with little to no issues, help the more seriously injured in treating their injuries or pain! If there are any Doctors here, help us in making diagnoses and how we should treat certain things!" Tamae called out.

All of the Talkative Triad began grabbing medical supplies or pushing medical beds towards the people in question, with the Doctors getting up to help them, Tamae, and the civilians who all got up and offered their help in healing everyone.

It was a cycle that continued for a while, happening as the other Spirits were fighting to keep the Diabolus busy. Eventually, Nia and Kurumi came with the last group, and Origami chose to aid Mukuro in their aerial defense.

"So, how many more people do we need to help?" Natsumi asked, looking around.

"Let's take a look." Nia replied.

She opened Raziel, putting a hand on its front page.

"Raziel, how many civilians are still out there? How many did we have before this all began? And many people have died?" She inquired.

The pressure of what the answer could be made Nia sweat as she watched it form.

The first number to appear was how many people they needed to save, which had become zero, to everyone's relief. Following that came the total population of Tenguu City, which was soon followed by the overall casualties caused by the Diabolus.

'Please, don't be too high... please!' Nia begged.

Nia crossed her fingers as she slowly saw the number form and reveal the death count was...

Zero!

"No way... everyone, there are no casualties here! Everyone was saved!" Nia cheered, raising her hand into the air.

Hearing that, the other Spirits smiled, while the citizens couldn't believe the miracle that all of them had achieved together.

"If there's no one else to save, then it should be time to help out Shinji's group." Miku stated.

"Yeah, except we still have one last problem to deal with. How do we guarantee this shelter will hold during the fight?" Nia replied, looking at the makeshift building.

"I may have a way to help with that." Kurumi smiled.

Everyone looked at her, right as she whistled to Origami and Mukuro, getting their attention.

"Guys, get down here! We're about to make our next move and need you with us!" She shouted.

"OK!" Origami answered.

Both of them landed by the group, right as Kurumi aimed one of Zafkiel's guns towards the sky.

**"City of Devouring Time!"**

She fired a sphere of black energy that grew in size before it began to fall, only to spread out and form a large barrier field around the area they were standing in.

"Huh!?" Mukuro blinked, rubbing her eyes.

"What exactly did you just do?" Miku asked.

"I created a time bubble, which will leave the time of everyone inside it stuck where it is until it's dispelled. This will allow us to finish this fight without leaving them in danger of getting hurt." She answered, smiling as she did.

Everyone's mouths opened as their jaws dropped open, surprised at this ability and how she used it.

"What can't you do with your powers!?" Origami asked.

"From what I can tell? Time travel." Kurumi answered.

Nia looked towards the Diabolus, then noticed a large explosion as it unleashed a heavy burst of attacks.

"Uh... guys? Let's talk about Kurumi's powers later, after we've dealt with this machine." Nia suggested.

At that moment, everyone saw it attacking and gasped.

"Come on, let's stop having a party and get over there!" Natsumi shouted, waving her arms around.

Such a reply got them to fly over there immediately.

* * *

The Diabolus let out a dangerously loud roar before firing its laser attack from everywhere, once again using another power spike that had its power altered to focus on just hitting them and them alone with its full intensity.

**[Date A Live III: I Swear]**

Such an attack made Tohka hold up Sandalphon as her barrier rose up to defend against it, quickly starting to crack as the others landed near her.

"Come on, we need to help hold this attack back!" Kotori shouted.

Her body released flames to help push against the lasers, with Yuzuru adding her wind, Kaguya emitting an electrical charge, and Yoshino releasing a small blizzard to help hold it back... which only managed to keep the attack in a stalemate that was in the Diabolus' favor.

"It won't be long before you run out of power! Now, prepare to-" Westcott smirked.

A large yellow beam flew at the Diabolus and flew towards its main eye, and then...

*"BOOM!"*

He was silenced as the Diabolus' lasers weakened. Following that beam, multiple smaller beams of a white color flew at it next.

*"BANG! BANG! BANG!"*

Then a bunch of papers flew towards its black plating.

"*CLANG!"*

As it began to lose its balance and lost even more of its lasers' power, a flurry of black energy shot at it.

*"RATTLE! RATTLE! RATTLE!"*

It soon lost support from one side of its body as it began to sway. Following that, visible sound waves of an indigo color flew right at it, and the ground beneath it was struck by a rainbow that caused its remaining side to sink into it.

At that moment, the sound waves struck it dead on and completely dispelled its laser barrage... right as it fell backwards.

*"BAM!"*

It crashed onto the ground, causing dust to blow near the Spirits and the Takamiya siblings, with the latter two smiling as they realized what was going on.

"They made it!" Shinji smiled.

"Just in time too!" Mana added.

With those words, Shinji's group turned to see Nia's group as they began to land near them.

"Sorry we took so long! Good news is we're here now!" Nia shouted, waving at everyone.

Everyone smiled and waved at the group.

"To think that all of you... are able to be this much of a thorn in my plans!" Westcott cackled, sounding... excited about it?

Hearing this, everyone looked to see the Diabolus get up as it began to use its regenerative ability, halving the one light.

"Fine then, you shall see the full might of the Diabolus as it erases you from existence. It's time to awaken it's true form... as the Spirit Killer!" He announced.

**[Insert Song Paused]**

"Say what now?" Shinji asked in surprise.

At that moment... a huge wave of power pushed against the ground, making everyone nearly fall over as the Diabolus let out a feral and mechanical roar, glowing a bright red color as it began to change once again.

It grew in size as it gathered all of the debris shards in the area, slowly shifting in shape as its mainly black body became a mixture of black and red, with the lights turning a sickly purple/green mixture like that of a kaleidoscope as it transformed from its current form into one that was a fusion of it and some kind of Dragon-like creature.

"This form! It looks like-" Nia realized.

Once again, the Diabolus let out a roar as its two wings split into dour, and part of its head's plating shifted to become a giant mouth, with curved spikes sprouting in multiple areas they hadn't been before. Some of the old spikes grew more spikes on them and created claws in others.

When it was over, the Diabolus gained a form that resembled the Red Dragon often compared to Satan, and was now ten times larger than before.

"Damn! That mechanical monstrosity keeps getting stronger!" Kotori grunted.

"Maybe, but there's a silver lining in all of this that we can't ignore." Mana stated.

Kotori looked at her in confusion.

"For him to keep pushing this machine to use its full strength against something he implied wasn't the being it was meant to fight against and counter? It's clear that our strength is scaring him." Mana stated.

Hearing that made the redheaded Spirit's eyes widen, and she smirked as her attention returned to it.

"Me, afraid of your strength? I don't know what you're talking about." Westcott replied, laughing slightly.

**[Date A Live III: I Swear - Orchestral]**

"But you _are_ underestimating us." Shinji stated.

Hearing that, Westcott suddenly stopped laughing.

"No matter what it takes, this machine you're so proud of will never fight the one it's meant to, and we'll show you just how small you truly are!" Shinji declared.

That reply made Westcott grit his teeth. He may have often just ignored such words, but this time?

'All those years ago, you spoke the same way when I was only feet away from her... and now, despite she's nowhere in sight? You still get in my way!' He thought, glaring at Shinji as if he were any annoying fly he couldn't seem to swat.

He only responded to Shinji with a loud yell, causing the Diabolus to react in the same way as it rushed towards the group at high speeds.

"Let's end this!" Shinji shouted.

Everyone nodded their heads.

Opening its mouth, the dragon-like machine unleashed a powerful laser breath from its mouth, causing everyone to dodge as the Yamai twins pulled Shinji and Mana out of the way.

"Kotori, burn that bastard!" Nia shouted.

"Gladly!" Kotori smirked.

Raising up her Angel, it began transforming into a cannon.

**"Camael: Megiddo!"**

Flames ignited inside of it as she let out a violent scream, then blasted them at the Diabolus' armor. However, despite their intense power, the flames didn't seem to be doing any damage.

"Really, that was all you had?" Westcott questioned in a mocking tone.

"No, it's actually far from it!" She answered.

"Kotori, switch with Yoshino, now!" Nia shouted.

Hearing their names, Yoshino nodded her head as the latter took a deep breath, making Westcott raise an eye.

'What are they up to?' He wondered.

As he finished that thought, Yoshino jumped off of Zadkiel's neck.

**"Zadkiel: Siryon!"**

Her Angel's eyes lit up as its jaws opened up and ate her whole, surprising Westcott, before it was enveloped by a white flash. Once it ended, Yoshino was shown upside down as she back flipped herself upright... only now she was apparently _wearing_ Zadkiel!

"Ha!" She shouted.

Clapping her hands together as her feet landed back onto the ground, a horizontal cyclone of ice flew towards Diabolus, which was when Kotori pulled Megiddo's blast away from the machine to let the icy storm smash into its black armor.

Just as Westcott was about to mock them again, seeing no damage on the Diabolus from swapping their attacks...

*"CRACK!"*

He paused.

"Huh?" Westcott blinked, surprised at the sound.

Shinji smirked as he heard it.

*"CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!"*

Westcott then gasped as he realized what those sounds were.

"No, you didn't!" He shouted.

Mana stuck her tongue out and blew a loud raspberry, and then...

*"CRAAAAACK!"*

The sight of the Diabolus' armor cracking could be heard, with a few chunks of ice starting to pour out of them.

"That's a little something we call a hot-cold surprise!" Kaguya stated.

"No, what happened is actually called a thermal shock." Yuzuru replied.

Kaguya blushed in embarrassment and then turned her head away from her twin, hoping to keep a strong face.

"W-Well, it's close enough!" She replied.

Feeling angered at how easily he walked into that cheap trick, Westcott had the Diabolus charge its next wave of attacks with even more energy than before, which Shinji and Mana quickly noticed.

"Watch out!" She warned.

"No worries, the hurricane children can handle this!" Kaguya replied.

She and Yuzuru threw Shinji and Mana to Tohka and Origami.

"Time to blow you away!" Yuzuru shouted.

Yuzuru swung her Angel like a whip, causing a powerful gale that shook the Diabolus and left its aim unsteady.

"Fine then, I'll just use this moment to repair the damage you've dealt." Westcott decided, preparing to activate it.

"Kaguya!" She shouted.

Kaguya knew what she wanted without her having to say anymore, and shot forward as the Diabolus began to regenerate. Her acceleration shot her right towards the light marking its regeneration limit... and then she shot right through it!

Coming out of its backside, the Diabolus roared as part of it slightly exploded, with the light fully going out as the damage didn't disappear.

"Damn it!" Westcott shouted.

Some orange lightning sparked from the light, showing Kaguya's lightning had disabling its healing ability.

"How dare you!" He continued shouting.

The Diabolus fired out laser spheres that mimicked fireballs like they were Gatling Gun fire, with everyone flying around and dodging them as Tohka and Origami flew near the Yamai twins, returning the Takamiya siblings into their hold.

"I've got this!" Mukuro shouted, flying near the beast.

She pointed Michael at herself before turning the key, making her gasp as she was enveloped in a golden glow.

**"Shifuru!"**

Her Astral Dress changed to a pink and black color scheme as it altered its appearance to look more like a battle-ready Qipao, with Michael growing an energy blade that made it turn into a halberd.

**"Jerez!"**

With a mighty shout, she thrusted her Angel at the Diabolus, she released a wave of spatial energy at its powerful plating.

The moment said energy hit... said armor dissolved and shattered! This left the similarly durable, but weaker exoskeleton in view.

"Damn you... damn you!" Westcott roared.

The Diabolus flew into the air and unleashed laser blast after laser blast every few seconds, leaving everyone to continue their game of hit and run as Kurumi and Origami flew near each other.

**"Hei!"**

**"Shemesh!"**

Photons flew from Metatron, while Kurumi fired off a large bullet that aimed itself at one of the Diabolus' four wings. The former caused some minor damage, while the latter caused that wing to start rusting. This allowed the photons to destroy it.

As this was happening, everyone in the shelter was watching how the battle against the now Dragon-like Diabolus was going. It was clearly an intense battle, so intense that no matter how hard anyone looked, there were no signs of who'd win it.

"Let's see you try to avoid this!" Westcott announced, generating a laser sphere that was a third of its body's size.

Everyone panicked as they saw it form, but Nia immediately grabbed her pen and began drawing in Raziel's pages.

"Miku, start screaming!" She shouted.

Miku gave her a look of confusion.

"Just do it, I don't have time to explain!" Nia continued.

"If you say so." Miku replied.

She took out a deep breath and aimed a scream at the Diabolus, right as Nia finished her drawing and smirked. The machine fired out its laser sphere, and the sound waves of Miku's scream made contact with it... causing the laser sphere to be reversed at its creator!

"Are you kidding me!?" Westcott shouted in disbelief.

The laser sphere struck, smashing the remaining wings and one of the Diabolus' arms and legs off its body, followed by it falling towards the ground.

"How did you-" Natsumi asked.

Nia giggled and showed her drawing in Raziel's pages, showing she drew out the scene.

"Did you make that happen!?" She asked.

"Seems so, now can you _ground_ that machine for us?" Nia answered, tapping the ground.

Realizing what she meant, Natsumi nodded and swung Haniel towards the crashing Diabolus.

*"RUMBLE!"*

As it tried to get up? The ground shifted, along with its broken parts, merged and twisted itself into a prison of steel and stone that held the Diabolus in place.

**[Insert Song End]**

Seeing the sight before them, everyone smiled at what they believed to be end of the battle, with the Spirits having won.

"No, this is... this is anything but over. I won't... I won't accept this result, no... no matter what it is!" Westcott shouted.

Shinji sighed.

"Seriously, just give it up already! Your robot is literally trapped and powerless. No matter what you say, you've lost." He stated.

Westcott laughed, holding the nearly popped blood vessel no one else could see.

"Wrong, you're so very wrong. Just because my machine can't fight... doesn't mean I can't obtain victory." He replied, smirking as he did.

He let out one final cackle before pressing a button.

 ** _"Initiating self-destruct!"_** The Diabolus said via recording.

Hearing those words, everyone felt their eyes widen as a dark red glow manifested itself from the prison Natsumi created. Said prison broke as the Diabolus floated above the ground somewhat and healed itself through the explosive magic it was generating by the second.

The only source of how long they had was a timer counting from one minute.

"Oh, my god... he's really going to destroy the city just to kill us!?" Mana questioned.

"He is..." Shinji answered.

Tohka gripped Sandalphon and then looked at everyone.

"We need to destroy it before it explodes!" She shouted.

**[My Hero Academia: United States of Smash]**

"Right!" The Spirits exclaimed.

Gathering all of the power they still had, all of their auras flared out their respective colors, signaling their united scream as they unleashed their respective elements against the Diabolus' floating form in hopes it would be destroyed before it exploded.

Unfortunately, despite the power of ten elements slamming into it... the Diabolus held on and continued counting down. Shinji and Mana sweated as they watched this.

"It isn't working..." Mana said worriedly.

"Come on, keep pushing!" Shinji begged.

As if trying to match with the belief they had in their friends' victory, the night sky slowly turned blue, showing the sign of the sun rising as the long fight that had lasted almost an entire day neared its end. The only question left for Tenguu City and its people was if they'd live to see it.

It was then the Diabolus' timer hit zero, and the explosive magic began to spread out, though it was locked in a stalemate against the Spirits that it seemed to be winning.

"Come on! If we don't hold this back, everyone, including ourselves, is going to die! We have to be stronger!" Tohka screamed.

The Spirits continued to keep the explosion from winning, despite running on mere fumes by this point. As they watched, Shinji and Mana felt themselves sweating, and once their shared stress finally reached its limits...

"WIN THIS!"

Shinji's screamed exploded out, causing his Reiryoku to flare and flow into the Spirits.

"Shinji?" Tohka said in surprise.

"Keep going Tohka!" Mana shouted.

Her Reiryoku soon did the same, and once their voices reached the skies, the people of Tenguu City all began to follow.

"Go Origami!" The trio and Tamae shouted.

"Don't give up Kaguya/Yuzuru!" The twins' classmates shouted.

"Kurumi!"

"Miku!"

"Nia!"

"Yoshino, Natsumi! Be strong!"

"You can do it guys!"

"We know you can do it, Mukuro!" Her fan club shouted in unison.

"Kotori!"

Hearing all of their voices, some kind of energy reached Shinji and Mana, causing the Reiryoku they were sending to the Spirits to become explosive, and then...

*"FLASH!"*

All of them felt their Astral Dresses glow so brightly, almost completely covered by the color of their respective auras.

_"Together, you are strong..."_

Tohka recognized that voice.

"I feel it... everyone's desire for us to win, it's overflowing within me... within us." She realized, making her smile.

She closed her eyes, and then... they opened as all of the Spirits let out a mighty shout that resonated into one form.

Their elements reacted by merging into a rainbow tempest of energy.

"All of this power, it's... it's... it's...!" Westcott stuttered, feeling both excited yet terrified at the sight of it.

With one more united cry, the storm of Reiryoku was able to overpower and swallow the explosive magic.

 **"Incredible!"** He screamed.

The Diabolus was struck, and once the energy enveloped its entire body? It slowly destroyed every atom of its form, causing a feedback that struck Westcott, which made him scream as he fell onto the ground with a loud thud.

**[Insert Song End]**

Everyone saw the intense light radiate across the rest of Tenguu City for another minute before it fully faded, leaving the Spirits to pant before they collapsed onto their knees from fatigue. Their Angels and their Astral Dresses vanished as their original outfits reappeared in their place.

"Is it... is it over?" Tohka asked.

No one made a sound, as if waiting for something to prove them wrong, and say that the battle wasn't over yet.

However, when nothing did that?

"We... we did it. We actually beat that bastard." Mana smiled.

"We've won." Shinji stated.

His voice shook for a moment before he let out a victory cry, raising his arms in the air.

**[My Hero Academia: Koutekishu to Kaite]**

Everyone heard his voice, and once they heard its happy tone, let out screams of joy.

"We made it!"

"Take that DEM Industries!"

"I... no, we're still standing!"

"Say it again!"

Everyone continued to cheer as if they were having a party, ignoring the city that still needed to be repaired.

* * *

Back in the room Westcott was in, two people saw him on the ground with the sight of blood on his head.

"My god!" A masculine voice gasped.

"No, Ike!" A feminine voice shouted.

Both of them rushed over to his side, revealing their forms for everyone to see.

The masculine voice was shown to belong to a man with spiky, dark blonde hair and an equally spiky beard. He had blue eyes with blacked lenses of a triangular shape and wore a dark red business suit similar to Westcott's.

The feminine voice was shown to belong to a girl who resembled Ellen, only with shorter hair that reached to her chin and two front bangs that reached beyond her shoulders, with thin circular glasses with a metallic gold frame.

"Ike, what happened to you?" The woman asked, horrified over he somehow obtained any injuries in this place.

He then gave a calm laugh, making her and the man looked worried before her turned to them, looking... better?

"Barrett... Karen... I saw it. The power to make our dream comes true." He stated.

Pointing at his tablet, a recording showing the battle between the Diabolus and everyone Spirit was shown playing on it. Especially the final moment and how it managed to hurt him from where he had been sitting.

"Thank you, Shinji Takamiya, because as of now... I have finally woken up to the truth." He smiled.

While one could point to his bleeding head as a sign of brain damage? It sounded like anything but.

Somehow... it felt like he had become more dangerous.

* * *

Back in Tenguu City, a hidden bunker rose from the ground.

The bunker's doors opened up as three people walked out, showing Ellen pushing the wheelchair of a man who resembled Barret, but with his hair slightly longer and flowing down, with some of it in the lower back tied into a small ponytail, and thin rectangular glasses with a metallic silver frame.

Standing beside them was a young woman that had long and messy, ash blonde hair that was tied in a ponytail from the shoulders down and light blue eyes, and her attire consisted of a red T-shirt shirt that revealed a gifted chest, a lab coat, blue shorts, pale yellow socks, and pink slippers.

Despite the city being destroyed, all of them were smiling.

'Looks like for the first time, it was Asgard Electronics that came out the victor, even though we didn't have anything to offer in this battle.' The man thought, looking at the blue sky and the shining sun.

Shinji and Mana ran over to the Spirits, who noticed them approaching.

"All of you did great. Tenguu City is safe because of you." Mana smiled.

"It wasn't just us, you helped too." Nia replied.

Both of them showed surprise at her words.

"Oh, come on. Don't give us those looks when you know exactly what we're talking about." Kotori said, followed by a snicker.

"We wouldn't have found the strength we needed if you didn't encourage us at the end." Yoshino smiled.

Shinji and Mana smiled at that.

"Yeah, it was all of us." He stated.

At that moment, a look of surprise entered his face, realizing something important.

"Hey, wait a second... I knew some of your names during the battle, but..." He stated.

"Whoa, you're right. I only remember my friend's names." Mana replied, feeling her head as she became a little scared.

Tohka giggled at that, looking at them.

"Guess we'll need to reintroduce ourselves, but... right now?" She suggested.

She felt her vision go shaky.

"Someone, catch me." Tohka requested, tipping over.

Everyone gasped as she began falling to the ground.

**[Insert Song End]**

Shinji caught her just in time, letting everyone see her eyes had turned into spinning spirals, making it clear how tired the Spirit of Darkness really was.

"Looks like that will have to wait." He realized, followed by an awkward chuckle.

From a distance, Ellen and her two friends began looking at their city's heroes.

"Seeing all of them and the power they possess... I think it's pretty clear how this all came to pass." The woman stated.

"What do you mean, Elsie?" Ellen asked.

The woman known as Elsie let out a chuckle.

"All of us thought that she had run away because she had lost her light, but... we didn't know her as well as we thought. The future we thought she couldn't see? All along, she saw the path towards tomorrow, and gave those who she knew could protect it the power to fight against the DEM." She answered.

Elliot smiled as he heard that.

"Come on, I think it's time we help out our old friend and guide them on the right road. After all, we now know for certain..." He began.

Shinji and Mana stared to the sun, smiling as they saw it.

"That they truly are the same Shinji and Mana we believed died 18 years ago, and the very family she's fought to protect." Elliot finished.

"And now, it's time we protect what they and their parents fought so hard to save." Ellen agreed.

With those words, the battle to save the world began, one guided by two siblings and their friends.

* * *

_The scene opened up to Tenguu City as it looked a decade ago, zooming onto the orphanage._

_Among the children inside of it, the sight of a familiar looking 6-year old boy could be seen._

_"Big bwother, big bwother!"_

_The young Shinji turned to see a 4-year old Mana as she tried reaching for a book sticking out of the bookshelf she stood before. Waking over, Shinji grabbed the book for her, then held it out for her._

_"Here you go." He offered._

_"Thank you." Mana smiled, taking the book._

_Waking into the room, one of the Orphanage caretakers clapped her hands to get everyone's attention._

_"Shinji, Mana, your play date sibling is here." She stated, looking at the two._

_Hearing that, both of them quickly gave open mouthed smiles and ran to go meet her, which caused Mana to drop her book by the caretaker's feet. She laughed as she picked it up, waiting for them to return so she could give it back._

_At the door, they quickly found a teenage girl whose facial features couldn't be seen beyond her mouth and long hair of a familiar color._

_"Tenka!" Both of them shouted._

_Noticing the Takamiya Siblings run up to them, the girl known as Tenka lowered down (though her face was still hidden) to hug them. After a few seconds, she let go and stood back up to look at them._

_"Good to see you two, especially as I brought a surprise with me today." Tenka greeted, waving at them while she spoke._

_"Like a present?" Shinji asked._

_Tenka giggles and shook her head._

_"No, but it is a surprise like a present can be." She replied, turning behind her._

_She motioned her hand, and a few seconds later... a girl around Shinji's age poked her head into view. She was a bit afraid, but slowly walked out from behind Tenka and let him and Mana see her fully._

_"Who's this?" Mana asked._

_"Just like you're Shin's little sister, this girl is my little sister. I brought her because I thought you and her could be friends with each other." Tenka revealed._

_After hearing that, Shinji walked forward and offered his hand to her. The girl moved back out of fear, but Tenka put a hand on her shoulder, then nodded at her._

_"My name is Shinji Takamiya, what's yours?" He asked._

_The girl said nothing at first, and then... the scene began to flicker as the sight of various images began to flow around her, prompting her forward as static began to build up._

_"My name is..." She began._

_The static and flickers soon shattered to show many images of a certain girl with night-colored hair and crystalline eyes._

_A girl that, in the present day, everyone knew as..._

**_"Tohka Yatogami."_ **

_With those words, everything shattered before piecing itself back together as a purple/violet sphere._

* * *

A gasp left Tohka's mouth as she found herself in the same realm where she last spoke with Phantom at, a realm she now knew was no dream.

She felt her head, and then... felt herself tear up.

"Everything... all of my memories, all of my past... I finally remember everything!" Tohka said softly, feeling the tears flow down her face.

At that moment, Phantom made her reappearance, which quickly got Tohka's attention.

"I always knew you'd overcome the odds, and I was right." Phantom smiled.

"Of course you did. After all, it's the job of a big sister to believe in her little sister. Isn't that right..." Tohka began, closing her eyes and smiling.

Then she opened them.

"Mio?" She finished.

Giggling at her younger sister using her name for the first time in ages, Phantom dispelled the noise covering her form to reveal her real appearance. In doing so, she confirmed she was the girl Shinji briefly saw after escaping from the brink of death.

"Yeah, it is." Mio smiled back.

"Though, now that I remember anything, I have to ask... why? Why did you seal away my memories in the first place and make me go through all of this?" Tohka asked.

Mio closed her eyes, then followed with a minute of silence that left Tohka worried.

Especially when she finally opened them, and saw the sad look on her face.

"Because... I needed you to see the world with clear eyes, otherwise you wouldn't understand what I'm about to say." Mio answered.

She placed a hand over her heart, then pulled out a rainbow orb that split into two. The copy floated to Tohka before phasing into her forehead... and then felt herself gasp as her pupils shrunk.

"T-This is..." Tohka breathed.

Memories flowed into her mind, but these weren't her own. They were Mio's, and what she saw was both wonderful, yet heartbreaking.

She saw Mio meeting Shinji and Mana, instances with her and Shinji that slowly blossomed into love, and then came the worst memory of all...

*"BANG!"*

Laying on the ground, with a fresh shoulder wound that threatened to make him bleed to death, was Shinji... having been shot by a gun as Mio held him.

A gunshot that Westcott had fired, all as the date flashed before her eyes.

"2002..." Tohka breathed.

The year that Shinji nearly died, and his life had a do over.

"You... you and Shinji were... and that bastard ended up..." she muttered.

"Yes, it's just as you saw. That's how it all began for me... and the world we live in now." Mio confirmed.

She shed a tear, feeling the pain resurface for that brief moment.

"But he's alive, so why don't you come back to him and start over? Have your happy ending!?" Tohka questioned.

Mio shook her head, looking her with a teary smile.

"We can't have that... not while he wants my power, and believes Shin will get in his way." She replied.

"But you revived him once, so why-" Tohka asked.

"No, a revival is giving life to someone who died. I didn't revive Shin because... just barely, he had been alive. I just _saved_ him, nothing more." Mio explained.

She took a deep breath.

"How I saved your life back then is proof of that, considering you used to be a Pure Spirit like myself. That all changed when I had to give you Humanity." She continued.

Tohka let out a deep breath, remembering what she was talking about.

She wasn't like the others. They had been Humans who gained the power of the Spirits, but her? The opposite was true, having originally been born as a Spirit, only to be given Humanity when her body started to fall apart.

A result that came from her being given a physical shell by having her form bonded to a human body... by absorbing a dead human and remaking her with the traits of a Human to avoid fading away.

"You... you absorbed them while alive, and had them reborn as babies." Tohka realized.

"I did, so if they die for real... it's all over. That's why I found the others and gave them powers like ours, so they could be their sword and shields." Mio confirmed.

As she said this, the realm started flickering.

"Huh?" Tohka blinked.

"Oh no, you're waking up! I'll have to finish this fast before I lose my chance!" Mio realized.

She looked at her little sister again, taking a deep breath.

"After your last battle, the feedback from everyone's Reiryoku has changed Westcott... given him some kind of _evil enlightenment_ that will make him more dangerous. I don't know when, but he will return, and he's already made sure Tenguu City won't get any help from the government." She revealed.

Tohka gasped.

"No way... so, our victory helped him?" She said in disbelief.

"But don't fret. There are still people who can help you fight the DEM, and you'll find them soon enough." Mio reassured her.

She then began to tear up.

"Most of all... keep everything I told you a secret. Until this war is over, until the threat of Westcott's ambition is gone? I can't return to Shin." She cried.

"Mio..." Tohka replied, tearing up as well.

"Promise to keep my secret and don't tell him anything! Fight alongside the other Spirits, and together, save this world and our futures!" Mio begged.

Tohka began crying at that.

"I will! No matter what, you will be reunited with Shinji again! I promise!" She screamed.

Mio felt her eyes widen before she smiled, nodding her head.

"I believe in you... and in them." She whispered.

With those words, and just like how their last conversation ended, Tohka's world went white.

* * *

A gasp left Tohka's mouth as she opened her eyes, seeing a light being aimed in her one eye. Elsie saw this and turned off her laser pointer, giving her a smile of relief.

"Good, you're awake and completely healthy." She smiled.

"Who are you?" Tohka asked.

"Sorry, but before I can answer that, you'll need to join your friends as we explain everything." Elsie apologized.

Hearing that, Tohka blinked as Elsie turned around, then gasped as she realized something.

'Could she be one of the people Mio was taking about?' Tohka realized.

"Are you just gonna sit there all day?" Elsie asked, turning to look at her.

Tohka panicked and stood up, realizing she needed to think of a way to hide what her sister told her.

"Sorry!" She shouted.

She raced out of the room as Elsie opened the door, quickly discovering she was in some kind of base.

"What the... where am I?" Tohka asked.

"Welcome to Tenguu City's greatest secret, and the only true enemy who can fight against the threat of DEM Industries. Welcome to..." Elsie replied.

She rose a hand to the ceiling area, where she saw a logo for a familiar company in it.

"The true Asgard Electronics!" She revealed.

Tohka let out a silent gasp at those words.

* * *

Meanwhile, on the surface of Tenguu City, the Realizers were beginning their repairs as a familiar agent hid in the shadows.

"From here on out, fully live out your code name as you hide in plain sight and gather every bit of info as possible from those siblings and their friends. Let them know that even in the safety at home, my eyes and ears reach them." Westcott orders.

"Understood. It shouldn't be too hard, since crows are scavengers, and what better scavenger for a bunch of students..." They replied.

Soon, they walked out of the alley, slowly revealing their true appearance as the light hit their leg.

"Then another student?"

Ending the call, the one known as black crow was revealed to be none other than...

Hiroto Tonomachi, showing a grin that was a lot like Westcott's.

* * *

**The bombs have been dropped, and boy are they big ones!**

**You've learned what side Ellen is really on, that Hiroto is a DEM mole, where Mio stands in all of this, and that Shinji is indeed the original Shinji from canon! That alone is a lot, and yet... that's only the tip of the iceberg for what you can expect from everything that's yet to show in this story. After all, we still have the stories of nine other Spirits to reveal in all of this.**

**Also, small heads up for everyone? Some of you might recognize Elsie from my other DAL fanfic, Spiritual Successor, and I'll confirm now that while this a different version of her? She's still the same character in many details. As such, there's a major spoiler about her in Ch 18 if you haven't read it yet.**

**Since Mio has also had her official debut in the story, there's something important that me and kingpariah need to bring up. When it comes to pairings with Shinji in this story... this is NOT going to be a harem. Mio is the only girl/Spirit he'll get together/already is together with. Our reason for this is that, aside from trying to avoid making Mio too OOC, is that we want DALAT to be a happier take on what Tachibana said DAL basically was: Mio's love story.**

**Romance can still happen with the other Spirits, as will other pairings, but none of the Spirits have what they need to gain feelings for Shinji without forcing it to happen.**

**With all of that covered, it will be a while before you see another update for this story, as me and kingpariah are going to fully outline the rest of DALAT before continuing it. That... and I should probably focus on finishing some of my other stories so I have less of them to focus on. That doesn't mean updates will stop, just that they'll become _very_ slow until said stories are considered complete.**

**Until next time everyone, and stay awesome! ^^**


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The announcement below was meant for the equivalent to this on FFN, so this chapter will not be deleted until the finished version is posted.

**Hey there everyone. Tohka here with something important I need to share, and before anyone assumes this based on previous instances where I make a chapter like this? This story is NOT getting canned or undergoing a reboot.**

**This notice will last until tomorrow on Oct 30, after which it will be deleted.**

**As you might have noticed, this isn't really a new chapter as much as an alert on what's going on with me since my last overall update after my birthday.**

**Mostly to let you all know that I'm still alive, and my lack of them is for a different reason.**

**To explain what's going on? Not long after said update... both of my parents contracted COVID, and they were incredibly close to dying from it. It left me more than just emotionally and mentally a wreck, as I was forced to take care of all my siblings and make sure we didn't get it (we didn't luckily), keep their spirits up, and then once our parents got home? Help them recover until they were healthy and fully themselves again.**

**What made it worse was no one else in my family could help because most lived too far away, and those who could either had a job putting them too close to virus or were in the age range with the most risk. I had to do this alone, and by the time it was over...**

**Like I said above, this mentally and emotionally struck me hard. When I tried to get back to writing, I just couldn't do it. Despite I had the ideas and knew what I wanted to type? My fingers wouldn't listen to me. It got to a point that I've been talking with a therapist to help feel better and regain my groove. It's been working, so I took this chance to give you all an update about when I'll be back in the swig.**

**The answer is that I don't know, so until further notice? All my stories will be on hiatus, though at the same time, one conversation with my therapist had them tell me I sound like I update more easily when I do a story based on my focus at the time. Right now, it's for My Hero Academia, which I have a story idea for.**

**So, if you think that I should try making a chapter or two to help me escape my funk? I'll try, but I still can't guarantee anything.**

**Last thing before I end this update notice is that over these last few months? I've officially decided to start cross-posting my stories here on AO3, rather than only having my unfinished and more mature works over there. Likewise, I've chosen to share a scene that may be in the next chapter so you have a partial update of sorts.**

**What I've written isn't fully finished, and may not be in the finished chapter, but I hope what you see will be worth the wait for when the finished chapter comes out.**

**Good luck everyone, and stay healthy! ^^**

* * *

**[Chapter 5]**

It was a normal day in the neighborhood of Nankou, and everyone was enjoying it without a care in the world.

That made what happened in the next few moments all the more horrible.

*"BANG!"*

A sudden fire shot into the air before it fell and caused a raging inferno, making adults scream and children cry as the intense flames began to spread and trap many. The sight of the then 11-year old Origami looking for her parents being briefly glanced among the blaze.

However, it wasn't her search for her parents that came into focus. Instead, it was a young Mana as she walked through the area, trying to find Shinji as tears filled her eyes and the grip of fear had taken over her.

"Big brother, where are you? I'm scared!" She sniffled as her small form walked through the flaming neighborhood.

As she continued walking, a loud crashing sound... or maybe the sound of something smashing? Mana wasn't sure what t was, but she heard it, and heard it closer than she wanted to. Her body froze as a dust cloud caught her attention, and the sight of a shadowy figure walked through it, making her see its glowing red eyes as it stated at her.

"W-What... what is-" She stuttered, feeling her eyes shrink at the sight of the horrible monster.

For whatever reasons it had for doing so? The Nibelcole immediately lunged at Mana, who tried to turn and run, only to trip before she could even turn and land on her butt, making her tense up as it got closer.

Just as it got close to her? An explosion of fire then shot out, missing her while capturing the demonic beast in its heat, and making it let out a horrifying screeching sound like the kind you'd hear from a demon in fantasy games.

Mana let out a ear-splitting scream at that moment, her fear causing her to mistake the sight as the creature itself emitting the blaze before killing her. A thought that was enforced as a result of her losing consciousness at that moment.

"Hey, look! Over there!"

Luckily, before the nearby flames could consume her as well? A few adults saw her unconscious form and carried her to safety.

Mana would wake up and forget this memory, unaware of how close to death she had been. How this monster, which she alone saw, had likely been the cause of the Tenguu Fire.


End file.
